


(You're The) Galra In Disguise

by genericfanatic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Kid Fic, Lilo & Stitch Au, M/M, MAYBE some klance if you squint really really hard, Trans Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Shiro (Voltron), deadnames, friendship more than ship-ship, from the maker of Dancing Lions Painted Wings (anastasia au), minor Transphobia, sibling fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2018-11-13 18:22:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genericfanatic/pseuds/genericfanatic
Summary: Allura and Coran are chasing down the Galra that stole the Red Lion.However, their mission becomes more difficult when the Galra in question crash lands on Earth, is mistaken for a cat, and adopted into the broken Holt Family.The Galra, whom the little girl, Pidge, names 'Keith', brings trouble to the Holt siblings, but also might be just what they need to make their family whole again.





	1. All Shook Up

**Author's Note:**

> so....i've been playing around with some possible AU's to do after the critical acclaim of Dancing Lions, Painted Wings, and...I started writing an outline...and then I really liked the outline...so I wrote the first chapter...and here we are.

PLANET: JABSER 7, VOLCANO REGION

“Perhaps we should abort the mission,” Coran said hesitantly into the comm unit.

“Why?” Allura said, narrowly avoiding a stream of molten lava flowing by her feet. “We’re so close!”

Coran suppressed his 4th heart attack for that day, watching her jump from stone to stone across the volcano. Her suit would protect her from the heat, but wouldn’t hold up if she fell in. Something he knew he expressly told her, but she didn’t seem to be paying any mind to. 

“I can feel it,” Allura said, excited, “I can feel it, it’s close!” She jumped down, stepping into a cavern of rocks. On the walls she saw carvings of lions and aliens and Altean ruins. “It’s here! Coran, it’s here!”

“Allura! You should retreat to the castle!” Coran shouted. 

“I’m perfectly safe, Coran,” Allura said, guiding her hands along the carvings. 

“It’s not that!” Coran shouted, “It’s the Galra! They’re here!” 

Allura looked down the line of carvings again. She had come so close! She turned back and ran the way she came to get to her speeder. 

She only paused a moment when she thought she saw something moving. Looking back, though the cavern was as empty as it ever was, but still, she didn’t trust the shadows.

Above her she saw the small fleet of ships fighting Lion Castle. Oh, this would be so much easier if they could just use the Black lion that was sitting dormant within the castle itself, but that would only be unlocked if and when all four of the other lions came together. She didn’t even have paladins for the lions yet, anyway. 

But a year ago, the Black Lion had awoken, just for a brief time, just long enough to wake up Allura and Coran, and they figured out from there where they were and what had happened to the universe while they were gone. Their first order of business: Finding all the lions. Easier said than done when she didn’t have Paladins to connect them too. 

But she couldn’t bemoan all the things she didn’t have. She had was Coran and the mice, and she still planned on re-taking the universe. She had protected the planet Arus, and she would find Voltron as well.

She guided her speeder up through the Castle’s particle barrier, heading straight for where Coran was jumping from control panel to control panel, guiding the ship meant to be manned by hundreds all by himself. “We have to get them to stand down,” Allura said, “If we retreat, they could find and take the lion.” 

“Easier said than done,” Coran said, firing at the ships with everything he had. “Princess, two ships right behind us!”

“Got it!” Allura said, firing back at them. 

A light blinked on the control, “The Galra ship is sending a communication signal.”

“Ignore it,” Allura said, but it was too late. A picture of a smiling Galra took over the screen. “Lotor…” She snarled at him.

“Princess Allura,” He nodded to her, respectfully, but his smile was mocking. “Why, you haven’t aged a day!” 

She scowled at him, not up for banter. “Retreat now or else be destroyed.” She ordered him.

“Now why would I do that?” Lotor said, “When there’s a beautiful lion waiting for me right below the surface?” Allura tensed, “Thank you for helping us to locate it, by the way. Our former lead was not nearly so co-operative.” 

Allura gripped the side of her controls, “You will NEVER have any of the lions, Lotor! Voltron will forever live only to FIGHT the Galra Empire!”

Lotor chuckled, “We’ll see about that.” Lotor’s smile fell as he looked off to the side. Another Galra was yelling something. “What do you mean escaped?” He yelled back to the Galra as the video disappeared.

Allura stared at the screen full of Galra ships. She bit her lip, “Maybe I should go down to the planet, if we had the red lion on our side, she could help ward off the ships.”

“That’s assuming the red lion will accept you,” Coran said, “The red lion is most particular about her paladins, it takes a rare person indeed to woo her to their favor and—“

Coran was cut off at the sound of a roar. Allura pulled up a screen showing the mouth of the cavern. Out of it flew the Red Lion, roaring in all its glory. “It can’t be…” Allura said. “Coran, who’s flying that lion?”

Quickly Coran pulled up a screen to show the inside of the lion. Inside, the creature’s purple fur and yellow eyes were unmistakable. “A Galra…” Coran muttered.

“No.”Allura grimaced. “No! They already corrupted the Black Lion, I will NOT let them take another. Coran, follow that lion!” 

Coran didn’t need to be told twice. Allowing the particle barrier to take the brunt of the Galra shots, the castle chased after the red lion.

The red lion was known for being fast and agile, but Lion Castle persisted. It couldn’t outrun them forever. 

Behind them, Lotor’s ship was following as well. “Lotor must be desperate,” Allura said, “A lot of his shots are missing us and hitting his own man in the lion.”

“I think he’s AIMING at the lion, Princess,” Coran said, firing at the lion himself to try and stop it.

Allura stepped back, frowning. “Why would he fire at another Galra…?”

“Princess! Do you remember what your Father did to the lions before he sent them away?” Coran asked.

Allura pulled herself out of her line of thinking. “Of course. He put his own energy into each of them to allow one wormhole jump, so they could get as far away as possible.”

“I think the Red Lion hasn’t used hers yet,” He said, pulling up scans of the Red Lion, building up a surplus of energy.

“What do you—“ 

The Red Lion roared, and from its mouth, a wormhole shot out. The Red Lion jumped through and disappeared. 

Allura gaped. “Coran! Coran get us through that wormhole!” Coran pushed the thrusters to maximum, just barely managing to squeeze Lion Castle into the wormhole.

The wormhole closed, shutting out the Galra behind them, leaving Allura and Coran in a strange new solar system. “Coran, where are we?”

Coran scanned the area, “Single sun solar system…Only one planet capable of supporting life.”

“And the Red Lion?” Allura demanded.

Coran frowned, “The readings on the lion have become…erratic. I’m having trouble getting a clear signal, but it seems to have entered the atmosphere of the planet capable of life.”

Allura scowled, looking at the blue planet Coran brought to his screen. “What can you tell me about the planet?” 

Coran brought up scans. “Satellite data says the planet is referred to by citizens as ‘E-Arth. It’s populated by a bipedal dominant species only capable of rudimentary space travel. No sign of any extra-terrestrial life either. They don’t seem to have encountered any life forms outside of their planet before now.” 

Allura exhaled through her nose looking at it. “E-Arth…why would a Galra go here?”

“I have a closer approximation on his location,” Coran said, “He’s in a desert mountain, on a continent in the northern hemisphere. But something down there is scrambling the signal, I can’t get a more specific lock than that.”

Allura huffed. “Alright. Then we’ll go down ourselves.”

“What!” Coran turned on her, “Allura, we—you can’t!” He scrambled over to her, “These E-Arthians have never seen an alien before! Our presence would cause a panic!”

“Tell that to the Galra driving the giant red cat on an intercept course with their planet,” Allura said, “We’ll hide the castle in this asteroid belt, outside the 4th planet.” 

Coran sighed, scowling at her, “We’ll have to lay low and not allow the humans to know of our existence.”

“Fine,” She said, “We’ll just have to try and blend in with the E-Arthians. What are these E-Arthians like anyway?”

 

PLANET EARTH, TEXAS

Rolo was having a good day. His customers had all been nice. His boss was out so he wasn’t yelled at. And he just had an amazing date with his girlfriend Nyma. They had gone out stargazing and saw the most beautiful shooting star. Their date was calmly ending now. He was driving his truck, one hand on the wheel the other wrapped around Nyma, and their dog Beezur leaning out the front window, drooling in the wind. Nothing could have been more perfect. 

“ROLO LOOK OUT!” Nyma screeched, just an instant before he saw it. The shape of a large…something sat in the middle of the road, staring at him with glowing yellow eyes. 

Rolo tugged the wheel as hard as he could, but was too slow as the wheel went over the animal. Rolo jammed the brakes, bringing his truck to a stop as he got out of the car, Nyma following him. 

Rolo leaned down to touch the animal. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was in the dark. Maybe some sort of wild cat? It looked almost purple, but…that couldn’t be right.

Beezur came out of the car to sniff at it. Suddenly, the animal rolled over, scratching out and scaring Beezur away. It stayed on the ground, too weak to get up.

Rolo and Nyma exchanged a panicked look. “We better call someone…” Nyma said.

 

Pidge closed her eyes, listening. She blocked out all the noise of the children playing, focusing on the beeps and whirs her computer fed into her headphones.

Suddenly the headphones were pulled from her head. “You come here to rock out?”

Pidge jumped and turned around. Two boys from her class, Lance and Hunk stood behind her. She clutched her computer to her chest. “Lance…what are you doing here?”

“You wander out here every. Day.” Lance said, “It’s recess! The LAST recess before summer! Don’tcha wanna play or something?”

“No thanks,” She said, turning back to her data on the laptop. 

Hunk knelt down by the mini-satellite dish she had set up. “What’s this? Are you watching TV or something?” He reached out to trace his fingers along the rim.

“Hey! Stop touching that!” Pidge swatted his hand away. “Just leave me alone.” 

“Hey, we’re trying to be nice!” Lance said, “’Snot like you have any other friends!”

“Lance!” Hunk said, gasping. 

“You shouldn’t be watching TV at school anyway!” Lance continued, “Ms. Montgomery said you can’t!”

“I’m not watching TV!” Pidge shouted at him. 

“Then what ARE you doing?” Lance said, hands on his hips. 

Pidge scowled at him, “’M listening for aliens.”

Lance burst out laughing, “Aliens aren’t REAL, dummy!”

“I’m not a dummy!” Pidge shouted back, “And they ARE real, my brother made me this stuff to prove it!”

“Then your brother’s a dummy too!” Lance said, still laughing at her.

Hunk pulled on Lance’s arm, “Shh, Lance be quiet,”

Pidge stood up, “You take that back about my brother!”

“No!”

“Yes!” 

“No!”

“Laaaance,” Hunk said, tugging on his arm more fervently.

But it was too late.

“What’s going on here?” Ms. Montgomery said, making them all jump. “Mr. McClain, Mr. Garrett, it may be the last day, but it’s still school, and I expect you to behave as such.”

“Katie’s looking for aliens,” Lance tattled instantly.

Ms. Montgomery looked down at the laptop and the small satellite dish Pidge was attempting to hide. 

“Holt,” Ms. Montgomery said. She never called her ‘Ms. Holt.’ “These items are not allowed in school—“

“But I wasn’t using ‘em during class!” Pidge protested, “And I had to bring it in, there was a high spike in uniden—unidenti—unknown radio signals last night! Something fell outta the sky, and I gotta listen for any more clues!”

“Holt, this is unhealthy behavior,” Ms. Montgomery said, firm. “I would have expected you of all people to know not to go messing around with things you don’t know anything about. This is clearly a result of you not properly handling your parent’s deaths.”

Hunk gasped, and even Ms. Montgomery looked like she regretted her words just a tad. Pidge was too enraged to care what she regretted, balling her hands into fists and opening her mouth, ready to scream at her teacher. 

Lance clamped his hand on Pidge’s mouth, muffling her screams. Pidge snarled, still enraged, and bit down on Lance’s hand, making him cry out instead. She tried to scratch her way to freedom, but he fought back, trying to hold on and pin her arms to her sides. 

In less than a second the both of them were on the ground, fighting each other, pulling on as much hair and scratching as much skin as they could reach. Ms. Montgomery leaned down, trying to pull them apart as Hunk stood off to the side, crying.

Pidge wasn’t paying attention, or she might have heard a second spike in unidentified radio signals her computer picked up.


	2. Mr. Iverson has left the building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt Holt struggles to keep his life together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Transphobia

“And I have plenty of clerical experience from my internship at the Galaxy Garrison,” Matt said, his back perfectly straight as he made eye contact with this potential manager. “Where I also learned to use sophisticated software, very similar to the programs used here at Olkari.” He smiled, just wide enough to appear sincere without being creepy, like he had practiced in the mirror.

“Right,” Mr. Lubos said, scanning over Matt’s resumé, “Well, we’ll be sure to keep in touch. Thank you for coming in.” He shoved the resumé in a desk drawer Matt was positive was the equivalent of a trash bin.

“Uh, sir,” Matt said, “Do you have any, uh, concerns about my application?”

“Hm?” Mr. Lubos said, “Oh, no, its fine.”

“Well, it’s just…” Matt said, “I’ve heard that you could really use an IT person as fast as possible, and, well, I just wanted to remind you that I can start as early as tomorrow, if you need.” Mr. Lubos stared at him, and Matt could feel his esteem dropping in the potential employer’s eyes. Matt resumed his smile. 

“Yes, well…” Mr. Lubos said, struggling, and clearing his throat, “Frankly, Mr. Holt…you’re simply overqualified for this position.”

“Overqualified?” Matt repeated, his practiced smile slipping from his face, “I’m…I’m really not. Look, I dropped out of college,” He said, pointing at the drawer where Mr. Lubos had stuffed his resume. 

“We’re looking for someone who’ll be staying with us long term,” Mr. Lubos said, “I’m afraid you’re just…too much of a risk. Now, thank you for coming in, but—“

“Frankly, sir,” Matt’s snark sneaking into his words, “You have nothing to worry about. All those other jobs I’m qualified for, I can’t take, because I’m supporting my little sister at home.” He swallowed, staring down Mr. Lubos, “Which is exactly why I need, I NEED this job. You know I can do it, and I just…please.”

Mr. Lubos stared him down, contemplating slowly.

 

Minutes later, Matt Holt stormed out of the Olkari tech office building, ripping off his professional looking blazer in the hot Texas sun.

He made his way down to the black car sitting in the parking lot. “How’d it go?” Shiro asked as he opened the passenger side door and plopped into his seat. Matt gave him a thumbs down and blew a raspberry. Shiro groaned, starting the car. “Sorry, Matty.”

Matt sighed. “It’s not like I really wanted to work for that soul-sucking corporation anyway,” he said, reclining his seat in misery.

“Hey, my soul isn’t sucked,” Shiro said, teasing. He had been the one to tip Matt off about the job opening.

“I’ve seen your paychecks, Shiro. Your soul is a little sucked.” Shiro rolled his eyes at him. “I just want to be able to stop looking, ya know?”

“And the money would be nice.” Shiro added.

“That too,” Matt said, pointing a finger gun at him. He reclined until he was completely laid flat. “Thanks for the ride anyway.”

“Hey, personal uber service is a small price to pay for free prosthetic repair,” Shiro said, knocking Matt’s leg with his metal arm.

Matt chuckled, rubbing his head. “Damn, the stupid social worker’s supposed to come this afternoon. I was hoping to tell him I had a job.”

Shiro inhaled sharply, “Yikes. Good luck.” Matt groaned from his seat. “Hey, I mean, Pidge is a good kid, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Matt groaned further. “Yeah. Except for the fact the social workers are transphobic homophobic pieces of shit that think my gay ass turned her into a girl.”

“You told them you were gay?” Shiro said, “Rookie mistake, Holt.”

“It just came up,” Matt said, “But I have to make them think I’m some saint parent or they’ll put her in the system. Do you know what they do to trans kids in the system?”

“Yes,” Shiro said, raising an eyebrow at him. Matt swallowed, guilty. “You know,” Shiro said, “It’s summer now…I’m sure if you applied, the Garrison would let you in fall semester…”

“Shiro…” Matt whined, “I can’t. You know I can’t,” He sighed, “Even if I could afford school and a kid, completing my degree means one year in space. That’s no longer an option for me.”

“I could look after Pidge for a bit…” Shiro said, looking at him, “a year isn’t that long.”

“To a 6 year old it is.” Matt rubbed his forehead, stressed. “A year is a birthday, Christmas, Halloween…new teachers, new classmates…it was bad enough when Mom and Dad were just in space, but now…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I can’t leave her.”

Shiro nodded, glumly. “Look, Matt, I’m on your side here. And if you need any help, financially or whatever, I’ll be there.”

Matt pulled up his seat shaking his head, “Shiro, you’re hardly better off than I am,”

“I have a job and I don’t have a kid,” Shiro says, “Let me help.”

“No,” Matt said firmly, “If I take your money, you’re going to do something senseless like, stop going to therapy or cut back on your doctor’s appointments.” 

Shiro opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again in surrender. “I’m doing alright now.”

“But the therapy helps, right?” Matt said. Shiro grumbled an affirmative. “Good. You should keep it up.”

“It’s just so goddamn expensive…” Shiro muttered, “And helping to keep Pidge around is more than worth it.”

Matt smiled at him, “Shiro…I appreciate what you’re trying to do, really. But I don’t need your survivor’s guilt money. I’ll figure something out.”

Shiro groaned, screwing up his face. Matt watched his eyebrows pinch together and knew exactly what he was thinking. 

2 years ago, Shiro had gone with Colleen and Sam Holt out on an expedition into deep space. 1 year ago, only Shiro had come back, leaving his right arm behind with Matt’s parents. Shiro got a medal and some pencil pushing job at the Olkari Tech, a contractor for the Garrison, for his trouble, and Matt got a check. A check that was quickly disappearing.

Shiro pulled up to Matt’s apartment complex. Just as Matt stepped out of the car, Shiro piped up, “That’s not…the only reason…” He said shakily. 

Matt froze, turned away from him. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. 

“The guilt, I mean…” Shiro said, getting out of his side of the car and walking over, “I still…I still want to help out. To help…you…” He stood directly in front of Matt.

“Shiro…” Matt said, not daring to look up at him, “We’ve been over this…”

“I know, I know…” Shiro said, resting his human hand on Matt’s shoulder, “I know, you have a lot going on right now, but…but life is always busy, you know? And I just…” Shiro lifted Matt’s chin to face him, “I just want to let you know how I feel.”

Matt smiled even as his eyes teared up, “Shiro…you know if I could…God, I know you and I would be…be a wonderful thing…” Shiro cupped Matt’s cheek in his hand. Matt gasped, enjoying the warmth and the comfort and everything about Shiro right in that moment…but he knew what he had to do.

He grabbed Shiro’s hand, holding it in his and pulling it away from his face. “But it’s still a thing, on top of all the other things…” Shiro nodded, leaning his head against Matt’s in defeat. “And I can’t ask you to wait—“

“You don’t have to,” Shiro said. Matt opened his mouth to protest, but Shiro talked over him, “You don’t have to ask. Even if I have to wait until Pidge is in college or whatever else. I’m here for you.”

Matt swallowed, his eyes shutting as Shiro put his arms on his, “Shiro I…” He said, his words lost. He could feel Shiro’s warm breath on his face. “I…” He had nothing to say, his open mouth searching for Shiro’s instead of finding words…

Just as their lips were about to connect, Matt’s phone rang. 

Sighing, Matt leaned down to rest his head on Shiro’s shoulder, Shiro looking up to the heavens in question and disbelief. Matt foraged for his phone in his pocket, answering it with a tired, “Hello?”

Upon hearing the voice on the other end, his head snapped up in surprise. “WHAT?”

 

Pidge sat alone in the principals office, her legs swinging down on the chair as she clutched an ice pack to her face. Lance had accidentally elbowed her in the forehead and it was starting to swell up. 

Lance’s mom had already come by and picked him up. Pidge didn’t understand Spanish, but it sounded like he was in trouble with a capitol T.

Finally, Matt rushed into the room, eyes locking on Pidge as he ran to look at her forehead, “Are you alright, Pidge-Podge?” he said, concerned. Pidge nodded, and Matt picked her up. “What happened?” 

“She got into a fight with another student,” the receptionist said, information Matt must have known already, “Something over this equipment she brought to school.” She indicated Pidge’s computer and satellite. 

“Ah…” Matt said recognizing the equipment immediately, “Right, well…I guess I’ll just be collecting that,” He said, grabbing the devices.

“Um, excuse me,” The receptionist said, trying to keep the devices from him, “The principal would like to discuss with you the issue of punishment.”

“Seriously?” Matt said, “It’s the last day of school, and the kid in question had to be older than her, right?”

“Mr. Holt—“

“Am I right?”

The receptionist tensed, composing herself. “The boy was older, but still—“

“Look, she can’t have ice cream for a week and no friends over to the house, now, if you don’t mind, we have an appointment this afternoon we CANNOT be late for, so if you’ll excuse me.” He gathered all the devices into one arm and took Pidge’s hand in the other, guiding her out the door and away.

Matt plopped Pidge in the back seat. “Wipe that smile off your face,” Matt said, getting into the front seat again, “You’re in big trouble, but we’re in a rush. Step on it, Shiro.”

As instructed, Shiro sped up the car, but he could hardly have been called ‘speeding.’

Pidge sat back, watching Matt pull his hair. He seemed mad or irritated or something. But Pidge was just as mad. “Ms. Montgomery’s mean.” She said.

“Well you won’t have to deal with her any more,” Matt snapped. Pidge flinched in the back seat, a movement Matt didn’t miss in the rear view mirror. “Look, Pidge…” he said, “There are…there are mean people in the world, and…and it sucks…”

Pidge gasped, “You said a bad word.”

Matt clutched his forehead, “Dammit. I mean, dang it, I mean—“ He successfully got Pidge to chuckle. Matt sighed, turning around to face her. “Pidge Podge…I’m gonna need you to be on you best behavior today, okay?”

Pidge sulked just slightly, “Okay.”

Shiro pulled up in front of the apartment, and they all saw a man in a black suit standing in front of the door, jamming on the doorbell for Matt and Pidge’s place. “Oh shit…” Matt said, “Oh shit, shit, SHIT!”

“You need me to stay?” Shiro asked. 

“No, no, get out.” Matt said, jumping out of the car and grabbing Pidge from the backseat.

He swallowed and marched forward, clutching Pidge to him. “Mr. Iverson! You’re…you’re Mr. Iverson, right?”

The man in the dark suit looked down on Matt. Matt tensed, holding Pidge in his arms. “You’re late,” Iverson said curtly, his voice dripping with irritation.

Matt gulped. “Uh…yeah. Sorry…sorry about that. We got held up at school.”

“Matt?” Pidge asked, tugging at his shirt, “What does ‘shit’ mean?”

Matt clutched his forehead. Well, that was a great start to this whole shebang wasn’t it?

Mr. Iverson didn’t respond looking down at Pidge. Matt realized he was staring at the bruise blooming on her forehead. “Ah…” Matt said, “right…there, uh, there was an incident at school.”

Then Mr. Iverson said what would doom their entire visit: “Well, boys will be boys.”

Matt went cold. Pidge didn’t react, not understanding except that Matt was upset. If it were anyone else, at any other time, Matt might’ve told them off for that, but at this point, all Matt could do was juggle his keys out of his pocket and awkwardly let the man he hated into his home.

The floorboards let out a loud squeak as Mr. Iverson stepped into the threshold. Matt flinched, worried about his reaction. He certainly didn’t seem impressed as he walked further into the room.

Matt put Pidge down, watching Mr. Iverson paced around, the old floorboards protesting every step. Matt had straightened up as much as he could before his interview that morning, but it would have taken a thorough deep clean to not make it look like the decrepit place it was. “This is where you both live?” 

Matt awkwardly cleared his throat, “Well…yeah. We…we had to sell our parents house.” Mr. Iverson continued looking around, eyeing every stain on the wall, ever crack in the floor, every cobweb on the ceiling. 

“Hey, Pidge,” Matt said, “Why don’t you show Mr. Iverson your room?” Pidge nodded, shyly, and marched over to her doorway, opening it, and plopping down on her bed, collecting the laptop she had gotten back. 

Mr. Iverson eyed the letters spelling ‘Katie’ on the door, looking back at Matt, before going in to inspect the room. 

The room was not classically girly nor masculine. It was incredibly messy, despite how often Matt had instructed Pidge to clean it. Instead there were cork boards on the walls, and where one person might have posters or paintings, Pidge had printouts of aliens, and newspaper clippings of monster sightings. 

Having seen quite enough, Mr. Iverson turned his attention to Pidge, who was ignoring him in favor of her laptop. “Tell me, Keith, are you happy?”

“Katie,” Pidge corrected without looking up, “My name’s Katie. Shiro and Matt call me ‘Pidge.’”

Mr. Iverson looked to Matt, who swallowed, nervous. “I’ve seen your birth certificate, Keith. That’s what your name is.”

“That’s ‘cause my parents didn’t know I was a girl,” Pidge said, “But when Matt found out, he changed it.”

“Did he?” Mr. Iverson asked, giving Matt the side-eye. Matt got into a staring contest with his feet. 

“Yeah, he showed me a book and a bunch of names and asked me which one I liked. I don’t like the name ‘Keith.’”

“Well, he might call you something different, but your name IS Keith.”

“No it isn’t!” Pidge looked over her laptop finally, “I already told you, my name is Katie.”

“I’m a grown up,” Mr. Iverson said, “I know better than you, you’re too young to be thinking things like that.”

“No I’m not!” Pidge shouted at him, her brow furrowed, “My name’s Katie, and you’re mean!”

“Keith—“

“MY NAME ISN’T KEITH!” Pidge shouted, “MY NAME’S KATIE MY NAME’S KATIE MY NAME’S KATIE!”

“Alright, Pidge Podge,” Matt said, swooping in to hug her, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” He looked at Mr. Iverson, “Sorry, I think she’s still a bit worked up from school, she didn’t mean to yell,”

“’She’?” Mr. Iverson said. Matt snapped his mouth shut. Mr. Iverson sneered, looking down at Pidge again. “Mr. Holt…” Iverson said, “May I have a word with you outside?”

Reluctantly, Matt let go of Pidge and led Mr. Iverson into the hall outside. “Mr. Holt, I am very disturbed by what I’ve seen here today.”

“Look,” Matt said, “even if it is a phase, what harm could it do?” Matt said, trying to be negotiable. “When I was her age, I insisted everyone call me ‘Mattatron,’ so, like…” He quivered under Mr. Iverson’s stare.

“Not only have you been influencing this child to your…agenda…you’ve provided inadequate living conditions, and you still don’t have a job, correct?”

Matt squirmed, “I’m…I’m close to one…I’m following new leads, and I’ll get a better place for us to stay…”

“Mr. Holt, let me be very clear. I am going to be sending in my recommendation to the state of Texas for Keith Holt at the end of this week. You have exactly that long to change my mind. And from the look of things today…” He turned back to the closed door where Pidge sat inside. “You have your work cut out for you.”

Without so much as a goodbye, Mr. Iverson walked out of the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was hoping to get to aliens this chapter but next instead i suppose


	3. Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt tries to comfort Pidge, but ends up with more than he bargained for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I've been gone for a while, major writers block and working on other things. Thank you so much for commenting, it actually helps me to motivate me on.

Matt was still shaken as he knocked on Pidge’s door. “Pidge Podge?” He called inside. There was no response. “Pidgey, can I please come in?”

Pidge was a quiet kid, but she didn’t often just ignore Matt all together. Carefully, he checked the doorknob, turning it slowly so he could peak into the room.

There was a small lump under the blankets. It shocked Matt sometimes how small Pidge really was. She always had such a big personality, she seemed to take up twice her size, but there she was, just a few feet of lumpy blanket.

He approached her like one might approach an easily spooked deer. Matt kneeled down by the bed, grabbing hold of the edge of the covers. “Requesting access to Fort Pidgerooni?”

“Request denied!” Came a small and furious voice. The lump of blankets curled up, pulling the edges tight.

“Denied?” Matt whined, exaggerating his shock, “Why, baby girl?”

The blanket lump squirmed, but didn’t answer. Matt wondered if she really understood why she was upset herself. He patted where he was pretty sure her head was. “I know what Mr. Iverson said was really mean. He shouldn’t have said those things.” Pidge mumbled something unintelligible. “What was that?”

“You didn’t do ANYthing…” Pidge muttered just slightly louder. She sounded so betrayed, it made his heart turn cold, freezing him down to his core.

He swallowed, trying to come up with words. “I…I know baby girl. I’m so, so sorry. I wish I could have, but sometimes…sometimes things are complicated…” he had hoped to wait until she had reached double digits before he had to deal with the ‘the world is a cruel and unyielding place’ issue. “It’s just…sometimes you have to pick your battles.”

“I pick all of them,” Pidge muttered, and that pulled a snort right out of Matt. 

He tugged at the blanket until he uncovered the mop of dirty-blonde hair, the same color as his own. She was still facedown, hiding as much of herself as she could behind her hair. “Someday you will. You’ll probably win, too. But right now…right now let me worry about it, okay? And it…it’ll hurt sometimes, but…” He was running out of things to say. How could he say to her that transphobia was ever okay?

“It’s not fair,” she spoke over him as he fumbled for a word of wisdom to bestow on her. “Lance bothers me, and I get in trouble. Ms. Montgomery says mean things about mommy and daddy, and I get in trouble. That man says mean things to me, and I’m STILL in trouble.” Matt hummed sympathetically, brushing back her curtain of bangs so he could see her little red-rimmed eyes. Finally she met his gaze, her face puffy and sad. “Matt…is…is there something wrong with me?”

“No!” He said, possibly a touch too firmly. “Oh, no, oh baby,” he pulled her out of the blankets, a deadweight in his arms as he clutched her to his chest, “never, never never. You’re perfect just the way you are, baby girl. Don’t let anyone, not your classmates, not your teacher, not even mean old Mr. Iverson make you think any different.” He kissed the top of her head, feeling tears well up in his eyes. 

His parents died, his almost-boyfriend went missing, and nothing scared him quite like his little sister doubting herself. “I love you so much, you know that, right?” she nodded against him. He felt a wet spot on his button down shirt, and he kissed the top of her head again. “I wish…” he said, hesitating only because he wasn’t really sure if this was a thing parents were allowed to admit to their kids, but he was a brother anyway, so screw it, “I wish I could make it all better for you. I wish I could make the world fair and make it so the mean people got what they deserved…but it’s just…it’s complicated right now…” He hated Mr. Iverson, hated anyone who dared pick on his sister…but he wouldn’t risk them taking his baby sister away. 

She sniffled against him. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, probably not even knowing why, it was just the thing to say. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for Pidge-Podge. After all, you are my favorite Bipolar Junction.”

She lifted her head, confused.

“My favorite trans sister.”

Pidge could only stare in disbelief as the terrible pun washed over her. She turned away, trying to extract herself from his arms, but he held on tight, giggling. “Lemme go!” She whined at him.

“But Pidge Pie!” He said, still laughing, and blowing a raspberry into her cheek. She shrieked pushing him away. “You’re the worst!” She said, struggling out of his grip. In response, he maturely blew a raspberry on her cheek again. She tried very hard not to laugh even as she was wrestling away.

Somehow, the ended up falling on the floor, Pidge sitting on Matt’s chest. “Ha. I win.”

“Ohhh, the pain,” Matt fake whined. Pidge rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help giggling, “It’s unbearable! I’ll never be able to make Mac & Cheese again!”

“Nooo!!” Pidge whined, jumping off his chest and pushing on his arm to get him up. Matt chuckled, obliging to get up and scoop Pidge off to the kitchen, letting her grab the box of Kraft on their way.

Pidge sat at the kitchen table as Matt started boiling water and preparing hot dogs and peas to mix in so he could pretend he was serving something healthy. “Hey, Matt?” Pidge asked. Matt hummed in response. “Is there a way to change my birth certificate?”

Matt smiled over at her, “Yeah, there is,” Pidge brightened, “Just…hold off until this whole social worker mess has died down, all right?” 

Pidge slumped again. “Ok…” she mumbled, tracing patterns in the wood of the table. “I hate the name Keith.”

Matt smiled sympathetically as he stirred the noodles. “You know…I chose the name Keith.” Pidge looked up at him, “Before we knew you were a girl, Mom and Dad had me pick. They vetoed Optimus Prime, so…Keith it was.” 

Pidge giggled at the name Optimus Prime, just as Matt intended. “Well…I guess it’s not a BAD name…”

“It’s just not yours,” Matt said, nodding in understanding. “You know, I read about a strategy online for not hating your deadname.” Pidge perked up, interested, “If you give the name to something ELSE, then you associate it with that thing instead of yourself.”

Pidge thought about it, “What would I name?”

Matt thought for a second. “Well…we could buy you a new stuffed animal…or a doll…or a…”

 

“KITTY!” Pidge bounced down the sidewalk, Matt just holding onto her hand as they made their way to the animal shelter. “We’re going to get a kiiiitty, we’re going to get a kiiiitty!”

Matt groaned trying to keep up. “Are you SURE you don’t want a stuffed animal?” he said, “It could be anything you want.”

“But a real kitty is better!” Pidge explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “They can give you real love!”

“Yeah…” Matt said, “and they also give real poop.”

Pidge giggled at the word poop. “Maybe we can train them to use the toilet?”

Matt heaved a sigh, “I don’t think you can train cats, Pidge-Podge.” He almost said no, but could not resist Pidge’s puppy dog eyes. 

Pidge thought about what he said. “I’ll just have to get a really smart cat, then,” She said simply, “The smartest cat they’ve got.” 

Matt sighed again as she skipped off, approaching the pet shop. As they turned the corner, Pidge ran smack into a couple, bouncing off of them and onto the ground. “Oh, dear,” The man said, a man with orange hair and a mustache, “Pardon me,” The man had an odd band around his head, covering the tops of his ears. He leaned down to help Pidge back up. 

“Pidge!” Matt said, “this is why we don’t go so fast. Sorry, sir.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” The man said, “Little E-arthlings just do what they do.” 

Matt squinted at him, “Uhh…yeah…”

“Coran,” the man’s partner, a woman with dark skin, white hair and a similar band around her head and ears, “Come on, we’re close.” She was holding in her hand that looked like…a cellphone, maybe?

“Right you are,” the man said, “Tally-ho,” the man nodded and the couple was off. 

Matt and Pidge exchanged a confused look, and then continued on their way. 

While Matt discussed their needs and wants with the shelter volunteer, Pidge was allowed to roam around cat alley, looking in on the cages. 

There were little kittens, big cats, fluffy cats, short haired cats, cats with missing legs or eyes, but there was one thing they had in common…they all stayed to the back of their cages. No matter how much Pidge cooed at them or put her fingers to the cage, they kept away from her, some of them even shaking…like they were afraid.

As Pidge wandered down the rows of cages, she came across one large cage, bigger than the others…and it was wide open, completely empty. 

Pidge caught movement from behind her, and looked over. That’s weird, she swore she saw something…

Known for her curiosity, Pidge followed the phantom movement. “Hello?” She called, “Is someone there?” There it was again, a flicker of movement just beyond the cages. Pidge picked up the pace and ran around the corner. “Hey! Come back!”

A blur dived down behind one of the cages, into a dark corner of the room. Pidge followed it again, eager to see who was there. 

Creeping towards the corner, Pidge saw two yellow narrow eyes staring back at her from the shadow. She tilted her head at it. “Hello.”

The creature jumped out at her knocking her to the ground and baring it’s teeth. Pidge’s eyes went wide as she took in the wide fluffy ears, the purple fur, the strange claws digging into her shoulder. She didn’t scream, just stared up at the beast that had knocked her over.

“Altea dosh grehata ko?” The cat (?) growled at her. Pidge blinked. “Galra dosh grehata? Grehata kahl Marmora? Lotor Prak?” 

“Whoaaa……” Pidge said, reaching up to try and pet his ears. The cat screwed up his face and flinched away, “You make cool noises!”

The cat growled, before he went silent, his ears turned to the window, closely followed by his eyes. He jumped off of Pidge and sauntered over to the window, leaning up on the perch. 

“What is it, boy?” Pidge said, jumping up to follow him, “You hear something?” 

Pidge thought she saw a flash of orange and white in the distance, but just as quickly as the cat, it was gone. 

 

Outside the window and in the distance, Allura was scowling at Coran. “What was that?” She demanded, “I almost had him!” 

“Sorry,” Coran said, brushing himself off, “But we can’t risk the E-Arthlings discovering us!” 

Allura sat up, picking up her scanner and gun, and looking down through the window at the Galra. “He’s awfully small for a Galra soldier.” The Galra looked her dead in the eyes, bristling. The E-Arthling child looked wildly about the window, trying to spot what he was looking at. “Where’s the Red Lion, you little quiznak?”

“We have to wait until he’s alone,” Coran said, “Otherwise we risk—“

“Shhhh!” Allura demanded of him. “He can hear us.”

Indeed, the Galra’s grimace had upturned into more of a smile. He took one side step towards the E-Arthling child and rested his head on her shoulder. Giddy as could be the child scratched behind the Galra’s ears and hugged around his neck, which seemed slightly distressing for the Galra, but he tolerated it.

Allura glared down at him, “Enjoy it while you can, Galra,” she said, “You can’t hide behind her forever.”

The Galra smiled up at Allura again, his expression clear: ‘Watch me.’

 

“The important thing is self-reliance,” Matt said to the shelter worker, “I’m out looking for work most of the time, and Pidge has promised to care for them, but she’s still a kid so—“

“Matt, look!” 

Matt turned to the door and all but had a heart attack. In the arms of his precious little sister who meant the world to him was a purple beast, practically the size of her, and none too pleased to be held up and dragged by his chest. “Isn’t he the best?” Pidge proclaimed, a wide grin on her face.

Matt and the shelter worker dived towards them, Matt picking up Pidge, the shelter worker grabbing the beast. “What is that thing?” Matt demanded, wondering if they had to run to the hospital now to get rabies shots and how long did it take for rabies to set in and—

“It’s a cat!” The shelter worker said, no more comfortable with this than Matt was, “I think…I mean, we think it’s a Maine Coon…”

“Why is it PURPLE?!” Matt demanded.

“It…uh…” the worker swallowed, “He-he was in a car accident! We think something happened to his fur, some chemical…thing…”

“He’s really smart!” Pidge piped up, “He got out of his cage by himself and he made cool noises! It almost sounded like he was talking!”

“He…he is adoptable,” The worker said hesitantly, holding the cat’s stomach to keep him still. Matt glared at her, seeing right through her excuse…he wondered if they just wanted to get the cat of their hands. 

“Please, Matty!” Pidge said, looking up at him with doe eyes, “Please please please please please PLEASE--!”

“OKAY! Oh…okay.” Matt said, swallowing his better judgement. The worker, Pidge and even the cat all looked pleased, while Matt felt like his insides had been turned to wet pasta. “What do I need to sign?”

The cat was relatively cheap, thank goodness. When it came to writing down the cat’s name, though, Pidge insisted on being the one to write it. In near illegible scrawl (she was better at typing, okay?) she wrote down without fear ‘Keith Holt.’

“C’mon, Keith,” she summoned, and the cat walked in step with her, rubbing up against her legs, “Lets go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully less of a break between chapters this time.
> 
> I cried writing Pidge's 'is something wrong with me.' Like, a lot. 
> 
> Keith is about Pidge's size standing, but he goes on all 4's.


	4. Animal Instinct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge has fun with her new "cat" Keith. Keith does not have as much fun.

“Speak!”

“Grrrrrr,”

“C’mon! I know you can do it! Speak!”

Keith turned his head from where he was curled up in his bed, trying to ignore Pidge who sat in front of him, waving a treat. It was a dog bed, because Keith was so big he couldn’t fit a cat bed. He COULD fit into some of Pidge’s older clothes, clothes that strictly came from the ‘boys’ aisle of the store, and so Pidge had shoved him into the ratty old black t-shirt. Keith didn’t seem to mind. 

Keith was…an odd cat. He wasn’t too fond of kibble or using the litterbox. Pidge had been attempting to teach him to use the toilet, though he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that either. He tended to just use the bathtub, which made Matt sigh, and mutter about being grateful it wasn’t on the wood floors. 

Pidge was determined to teach him, and he was smart enough she was pretty sure he understood at least a little, but the real problem was his obstinance. Keith followed Pidge from room to room, but did not really seem to care about doing anything she wanted. Most of the time, he curled up in his bed or some similar surface. He wasn’t too fond of skritches or pets, definitely not fond of curling up in someone’s lap.

In short, he was a frustrating animal. 

“Matt, I swear, at the shelter he spoke! It was…weird sounding, but he did!” Pidge complained, still waving a treat (a piece of bologna) in Keith’s general direction.

“Mmhmm,” Matt said, not looking up from his computer. “I believe you sweetie.”

More than likely, Matt had no idea what Pidge was saying at all. He had been buried in his computer for days, and not doing fun stuff like coding or looking for aliens. Boring stuff. Job search stuff.

Pidge sighed as Keith shifted in his bed, settling in. She got up and headed for the kitchen. It was her last resort. 

As soon as she crossed the threshold, she heard Keith padding behind her. She smirked to herself. She only had the cat a day and she’d figured him out. Keith didn’t like to engage much, but he NEVER left Pidge’s side. She considered that a success. A small success, but a success nonetheless. 

She turned on him, staring him down with her hands on her hips the way her mother had done. Keith sat back, his back legs bent up with knees up to his chest, front legs between them, looking more like a frog than a cat. “Now what’s up with you?” she asked. He stared up at her blankly, “You’re really smart with the hard stuff, but you can’t do basic cat things!” Keith blinked at her, not reacting. “C’mon, I’ll show you.” She opened her laptop and put it on the table, urging him to follow. She googled ‘cat videos’ and instantly found millions of results. She clicked on the most normal looking compilation, showing cats playing with toys and lasers and sitting on people’s laps. “See? This is what cats do.”

When she turned, Keith was not listening. He had taken to jumping up onto the counter and sniffing the food pantry. “Hey! Get down from there!” Pidge jumped, but could hardly reach the counter herself. She grabbed his back leg and pulled. He growled at her swiping at her arm with his claw! “Hey! That’s not nice!” 

Keith didn’t seem overly concerned with ‘nice.’ He kept rummaging through the pantry, seeming to be interested in the box of animal crackers, and not caring much about what he knocked over in the meantime. 

Pidge grumbled, trying to pick up the fallen snacks. “MATT!” She called. 

With a reluctant shuffle, Matt came into the kitchen as well, looking over the carnage Keith had wrought. The cat did not look guilty in the slightest, “Oh fu---fudge…” he muttered under his breath. He grabbed Keith around the middle and pulled him down, dropping him haphazardly on the floor. Keith did not seem pleased with this development, growling up at Matt as he tried to clean up Keith’s mess.

Matt ignored the cat, too concerned with putting things back where they should go. “Hey, Pidge-Podge, what do you think about heading over to the arcade with Joaquim?”

Pidge scowled, thinking. Joaquim was their teenage neighbor in the upstairs apartment. He was…nice…but he wasn’t overly interested in ‘babies’ like Pidge. But Matt looked so hopeful… “I guess…can I bring Keith with me?” 

It was still odd to use the name ‘Keith’ and not think about it in terms of herself. But, Keith seemed to be responding to the name better than she ever had, so, that was a win. “Yeah, yeah, sure,” Matt said, gathering up some quarters from their savings jar. “Just, make sure to keep him on his harness.”

Keith’s ears flattened. He did not like his harness. 

 

As soon as Matt could kick them out the door, they were off. Joaquim was just as reluctant to take Pidge as she was to go, but Matt did promise to pay, so, there they were. As soon as they made it in, he sat off to the side, saying “I’ll be here if you need me,” and immediately gave his entire attention to his phone. 

Pidge practically learned to speak on these machines, and she was already pretty good. Not as good as Matt, yet, but she was determined that she would be soon. Besides, there were other teenage boys she could destroy the records of. 

She focused on one of her favorite games, Beastking, determined that she would beat the high score by the end of the day, fighting off all the weird aliens. 

Keith sat beside her on his back legs, still tugging at the harness to try and pull it off. The straps connected around his back, though, where he couldn’t reach even if he was able to manipulate him, so he mostly sulked, the end of the leash held lazily around Pidge’s wrist. 

Eventually, though, his ears perked up at the sounds coming from Pidge’s game. She was halfway through a fight with the Witch Queen when she felt a pressure on her lap. 

Keith had sat up on his hind legs, using Pidge’s lap as support as he followed the bright moving lights of her avatar jumping around and fighting. The surprise of seeing him there ensured the Witch Queen won, but it was okay, she was just happy to have Keith be there with her. 

Hesitantly, she patted his head between his fluffy ears. He glared at her, retracting his paw and sitting back down on the floor. Still, he watched the arcade game’s lights as Pidge started the game over. 

The arcade was pretty packed with kids at the start of their summer vacations. Pidge therefore wasn’t surprised when a big kid came over, “Hey, lemme play.”

“I’m not done,” Pidge said, rudely. 

“You’ve been on this game a whole hour,” He said, “C’mon, give someone else a chance.”

“Lemme finish!” Pidge whined, still absorbed in her game. 

“You’re too little for it anyway!”

The boy groaned as Pidge ignored him. He pushed the wrong button at a crucial moment, causing her avatar to fall into a pit and the ‘game over’ sign to flash. “Hey!” Pidge said, angry, “That’s not fair! That was my game!”

The big kid snickered. “Guess its over now!” 

Pidge didn’t want to cry, she shouldn’t, she didn’t want this boy to know he was getting to her, but dammit, it was just one more thing that was unfair. Why was everything unfair! “You wrecked it!” She yelled at him, “You! You! It’s my turn! It was my turn and it’s still my turn!”

Her yelling had attracted the gaze of the other kids around, including Joaquim. He tore himself from his phone and walked over, clearly irritated at the both of them. “What’s going on?” 

“She won’t get off the game! She’s been playing for an hour!” The kid yelled, pointing his finger at her. 

“He messed it up!” Pidge yelled, pointing back, “He messed up my game!”

Joaquim sighed. “Katie, haven’t you already beaten this game a hundred times?”

“Yeah, but—“

“Why don’t you play one of the other games for a while?” Joaquim said in a voice that was trying to sound comforting, but came off as talking down to. 

“But I—“

“Katie,” Joaquim said, his voice a warning.

Pidge flinched and stepped away, letting the older kid take her seat. 

The kid yelped, jumping in his seat at the sound of a growl. At their feet, Keith had his teeth bared facing the older kid. The boy flinched away, “Get your freak cat away from me! Freak!” 

Pidge took Keith’s leash in hand. She wanted to encourage him to maul the mean boy. But….Matt wouldn’t like that. “C’mon, Keith, lets find a new game. 

It was significantly harder to find a new game. Most of them had been taken. She paced in circles, all the other kids flinching away from Keith, who looked like he wanted to eat one of them.

Finally, there was a tap on her shoulder. She looked up out of the corner or her eye to see none other than Lance and Hunk standing next to her. Lance was shuffling on his feet, in a staring contest with the floor, while Hunk stood behind him, staring Lance down. “What.” Pidge said, rudely. 

Hunk nudged Lance. “Um,” he said, “Well, I just…I wanted to apologize for fighting you in school. It was mean. And—And wrong.” 

Pidge sneered at him. “Whatever, its fine.” She wasn’t as mad with him as she had been with Ms. Montgomery anyway. 

Despite her rather uninspiring apology, Lance brightened. “Oh! Cool. Do you, like…wanna play hover racing with us? There are some cars outside.”

To be honest, Pidge did not really want to spend any more time hanging around these guys. Plus, Matt always said the hovercars were for older kids, and she wasn’t ready for it. But, Matt wasn’t here. Joaquim wasn’t paying attention. And there wasn’t really anything else to do in the arcade. “Sure,” She said, dragging Keith with them. 

Hunk and Lance finally saw the cat. Hunk jumped, hiding behind Lance. It was rather ineffective given he was nearly twice the size of his friend, and Lance rather looked like he wanted to hide behind Hunk instead. “What is that THING?” 

Pidge smiled, gloating, “That’s my kitty!” 

Keith glowered at the two boys, baring his teeth at them both. They flinched. Pidge chuckled to herself. “Shall we?”

The boys stayed as far away from the scary cat as they could, walking outside. 

There was an array of little hovercars sitting outside, being supervised by a teenage girl almost more bored than Joaquim. Hunk, Lance, and Pidge paid tokens to use one each. Lance took the blue one, Hunk yellow, and Pidge green. “Hey kid,” the worker said, “You can’t take your…pet…on the ride!”

Pidge hadn’t thought of that. Looking from side to side, she unlooped Keith’s leash from her wrist and tied it to the fence. Keith most decidedly NOT like this development. “Stay here, I’ll be right back. Keith growled at her, straining on his leash to follow as she got in her car. 

“MRO!” Keith shouted after her. Or, she thought he did. Honestly, it kinda sounded like the word ‘no.’ 

Pidge blinked and looked back. He didn’t seem upset or angry like he had at the boys in the arcade. Instead he seemed…scared. He kept looking over his shoulder to something in the distance, while clawing at his leash and trying to keep closer to Pidge. “It’s okay,” Pidge tried to reassure him, “I’ll just be a minute.”

Despite not being really MAD at Lance, she still wanted to beat him. Not only that, she wanted to destroy him. 

Unfortunately, Lance was actually pretty decent at driving hover cars. Not amazing, but better than Pidge. Hunk seemed to just be having fun, driving around the track. For Pidge, she was amazing at games that could be coded and defeated just through sheer concentration, but this took…hand-eye coordination. She was working on it, but uh. Yeah. 

Lance was halfway up the track in front of her, zooming through and cackling. He might have been apologetic before, but that sure as heck wasn’t stopping him gloating about how “I’m gonna win! I’m the BEST!” and other such things. She wanted to wipe the smile right off his face. 

The whole hovercar lurched to the side, nearly running off course. It evened out as Keith plopped into her lap, squished, but fitting beside her feet. His leash was torn, looking like he bit through it. “Keith! What are you—“

“Move!” He said in a thick growl. Pidge wasn’t even ENTIRELY sure he’d said it, but…it certainly seemed like it as he grabbed the steering wheel, practically sitting on her lap. 

Possibly shocked, Pidge let go of the wheel, keeping her foot jammed on the ‘go’ pedal, but allowing Keith to gain control. The car instantly steadied out, rather than doing the clumsy ‘back and forth’ thing that Pidge had been attempting. Keith made a precision turn, cutting the corner and gliding them forward. Now that they were on the fastest track, the hovercar zoomed, closing in on Hunk, passing Hunk, closing in on Lance and…

“Hey!” Lance protested as their hovercar burst ahead…

And over the edge of the track…

And through the gate in the fence…

“Uhhh….” Pidge said as Keith directed their car away from the arcade, heading down the sidewalk. “Keith! No! Uh…Down! Sit! Stay!” She tried to grab the wheel, but he was a lot stronger than she was expecting. Keith did not listen, driving forward across the sidewalk, as fast as the kiddie hover car could take them.

Which turned out not to be too far, as it came to a sudden halt. The hover mechanism groaned, spinning in place.

Pidge didn’t want to turn around and face her fate, but knew she had to. 

The hovercar worker glowered at them. She was NOT pleased at having to actually move for her job. In the distance, Joaquim was bursting out of the arcade, very upset at having been interrupted from Pidge’s shenanigans twice.

Pidge gave a nervous laugh. “Uh…bad kitty?” 

 

Hours later, after Pidge had gone home, the hovercar worker groaned again. “People doing drugs in a kids area? Really?” She said to herself, sweeping up the needle on the ground before anyone could get hurt on it. 

Of course, she didn’t recognize the Altean writing on the needle, identifying it as an alien tranquilizer dart that Keith had run away from earlier that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see? Lance isn't so bad really. He's just a kid.


	5. A Little Less Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is grounded, Keith is bad at being a cat, Shiro's babysitting, and Allura gets some bad news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like its been a long time. Sorry, guys. But, good news, got wave of inspiration yesterday (see end notes for why) and so got this out! We're gettin to the juicy bits now.

“Hey, Matt?” Pidge asked a few days after the arcade incident

“Mm?” Matt said, not looking up from his computer. It felt like he hadn’t looked up from it in days.

“Can I PLEASE be ungrounded? I’m really, really bored.”

“I told you, one week,” He said, “I tried to look past the fight at school but the hovercart was one step too far.”

“I didn’t steal it!” Pidge complained, “KEITH did,”

That actually got Matt to look up for a second. “Your CAT stole a hovercart?” Pidge nodded emphatically. “Look…hon. I’m going to be out for a lot of today, so Shiro’s going to come look after you, alright? But he’s going to be working on his computer so I need you to be really good for him.”

She made a loud “HMPH!” Sound and stormed her way into her bedroom, Keith on her heels as always, acting like nothing had happened.

Keith had not been doing well with the isolation either. He kept looking out the window, his ears perked and his fur tense. Pidge tried to get him to pay attention to her, but Keith wasn’t having it. Like always, he did whatever he wanted, not caring what he wrecked.

As soon as Pidge closed the room on them, he curled up in the nest he had made for himself out of Pidge’s clothes and part of her curtain, oblivious to her pacing and anger. “You! YOU got me in trouble!” She yelled at him. His ear twitched. “It’s not fair! Dammit! Why is nothing ever fair?!”

She collapsed face down on the bed, trying to make herself not cry. Why would no one believe her? She KNEW Keith had talked, KNEW he must have broken free himself, KNEW Keith had taken control of the cart…but he was a cat, so SHE had gotten blamed.

Something warm and fuzzy wedged itself between Pidge’s face and the bed. Looking up she found Keith nosing at her, concerned. She frowned at him. “You were supposed to make everything better.” She told him. He tilted his head, like he was trying to understand.

Slowly, Keith lowered his head to her level on the bed. He nudged at her hand. Curious, she patted the top of his head. He didn’t flinch away like he usually did, so she gave experimental pets between his big, floppy ears. He didn’t seem as relaxed as cats online tended to get when they were pet, but she felt better getting to do it. She wondered if this was his way of apologizing to her.

She heard the sound of the door and knew Shiro had come to watch over her. Curious, she tiptoed to her door and opened it a smidge, hoping to hear the conversation. “—thanks for coming on short notice.”

“Hey, like I said, it’s no problem,” Pidge saw Shiro holding his shoulders, “I’m here for whatever you need. How are things going at the Holt residence?” Matt’s face crumpled, and he buried it in his hands, pushing his glasses up his forehead. “That bad, eh?”

“Iverson’s coming back tomorrow,” Matt said, “I’m following up on a few applications today, but if they all fall through…”

“Hey…we’ll make it work, okay? People would be LUCKY to employ you.” Matt groaned and leaned into Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro patted him on the back, while Matt whispered something Katie couldn’t hear. “I don’t know,” Shiro said, comfortingly, “but if anyone can do it, you can.”

Matt took a deep sigh and composed himself. “Alright, I’m headed out. Katie’s sulking in her room with the cat.”

“Oh yeah,” Shiro said smiling, “I haven’t met your cat yet. I’m looking forward to seeing him, I love cats!”

Matt groaned and rolled his eyes. “Well, you have fun with that.” He said as sarcastically as he could before heading out.

Shiro turned his attention to Pidge’s door, briefly making eye contact. Pidge gasped and slammed the door shut.

By the time Shiro came to knock on the door, she was buried in her laptop. “Hey kiddo,” Shiro said, opening the door, “How are you—WHAT THE--!” Shiro actually jumped seeing Keith at the edge of her bed, “What—what is—“

“That’s Keith,” Pidge said, “He’s a Maine Coon.”

“Uh…huh…” Shiro said, looking at Keith who curled up, ignoring him. “Well, uh…good—good kitty.”

He reached down to pet between Keith’s ears, but Keith snapped his head up, growling at him. Shiro snatched his hand away to safety. “Well…okay then. That is quite the cat.”

“He doesn’t like to play or do anything interesting,” Pidge said, “All he ever does is get me in even more trouble.”

“Well…” Shiro said, eyeing the ‘cat’ with suspicion, “Maybe he just needs a good outlet. Something you two could enjoy together.”

“Like what?” Pidge asked.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. Just something fun you two can do together.” The both of them turned to Keith, who had gotten up stand on his hind legs and look out the window, ears perked up. “Anyway, I’ll be in the other room if you need anything.”

He closed Pidge’s door on his way out, leaving Pidge contemplating her cat. Something fun they could do together…

“Hey, Keith,” Pidge called. Keith’s ear twitched to her, but he didn’t look. “I know you can understand me,” she said, “C’mere.”

Keith’s ears flattened and he turned to her. “No,” He growled.

Pidge sighed, picking up her laptop to go sit next to him by the window. “Would it kill ya to speak when there are other people around who would then believe me?”

Keith gave her a sideways glance before staring back out, still on high alert.

“I wanted to show you something,” She angled the laptop towards him, “This is some of the stuff I look for all the time. Aliens and cryptids and stuff. Fun, right?”

His ears perked up at the word ‘aliens’ and looked down at her computer. “See, this is my favorite,” she said, going through her slides, “The Loch Ness Monster. But, she’s in Scotland or something and Matt says we can’t go. But there are tons of cryptids here in America! Like, look, Bigfoot, and the Jersey Devil, and Mothman!”

When Pidge flickered to the picture of Mothman, (or rather, a shadowy sketch of Mothman) Keith jumped down on all fours, looking at the picture. “Whoa, you like that one?” Keith clawed at the screen. Pidge quickly pulled it back, “Hey! Careful with this!”

Keith backed off, but subconsciously touched his ear, looking at the picture. Pidge was confused, looking back and forth between Keith and the sketch, before she realized, “Oh, yeah. I guess the tufts on this picture kinda look like your fluffy ears. Weird.”

“Galra?” Keith said nervously.

Pidge cocked her head. “What’s ‘galra?’” Keith pointed urgently at the picture. “Mothman? Mothman’s Galra?”

Pidge flinched back in a spur of movement. Keith was suddenly tucked away under her bead, looking out with glowing yellow eyes. “Hey, it’s okay,” She said, crawling towards him. “There’s nothing to be scared of. He’s out in West Virginia. Besides, he doesn’t even have those ears in all his pictures.”

Keith stayed hidden, nervous, but watched carefully as Pidge pulled up pictures on her laptop. “See? Nothing to be scared of.”

Keith still looked suspicious. Pidge sat in front of him. “Are you...are you scared of these ‘galra’?” Keith flinched at the word. “Here, nod up and down for yes, shake for no.”

Hesitantly, Keith nodded. “That’s okay,” Pidge said, “I used to be scared of monsters too, but Matt told me all about them and how to track them and stuff, and that made me less scared!”

Keith’s ear twitched. Slowly he crawled out from under the bed to sit beside her. Pidge giggled, and patted him on the head. Keith frowned, turning away, but did not stop her, so she counted it as a win.

“Here,” Pidge said, “lemme show you my notes.”

 

 

“He’s been locked in that room for days,” Allura said, frustrated. She was sick of staking out this damn house.

“He has to come out eventually,” Coran assures her, enraptured in watching a line of tiny insects walk across the ground, “patience, princess.”

Allura huffed, grumbling. “Coran, what are you doing?”

“E-Arth life is fascinating! Look at these creatures. The females are called ‘ants’ and the males are called ‘uncles.’”

Allura wasn’t sure if she was just bored or genuinely interested—no, no, she was definitely just bored—she sat beside him, watching the insects. “How do you tell which ones female and which ones male?”

Coran opened his mouth to answer, but froze, mouth open, as the realization he didn’t know crashed over him. “Well...I’m sure they can tell.”

Allura sighed. A beeping came from her earrings. She and Coran looked at each other, shocked. That was her Altean communication signal. No one should be able to contact her on this line.

It beeped again. “Could it be…?” She let the question hang, unwilling to even voice the idea of other Alteans.

“Well?” Coran said, “answer it!”

Allura nodded furiously. “Hello? Hello! Can anyone hear me? Who is this?”

It started with a deafening amount of static, but no matter how it hurt her ears, she didn’t turn the volume down, in case she missed part of the message.

Finally, a voice broke through. The worst voice. “Hello, princess.” They could practically hear the smug smile in Lotor’s voice.

Allura snarled. “Lotor. How did you get this signal?”

“It was pretty easy from your ship,” he answered.

Allura could only exchange horrified looks with Coran. His panic made her feel all the worse.

She tapped a few buttons and pulled up her wrist screen. Lotor smiled at her from HER station. In the background she saw his infamous generals sitting in the chairs reserved for the Paladins. “It was smart to hide your ship on the outer edge of the solar system to keep it from the humans. Less smart to leave it so vulnerable.”

“What’s a human?” Coran asked, but Allura swatted him away.

“Fine. Take our castle if you want,” she said, feeling fury run through her veins, “but you will never have the red lion, and you will NEVER have Voltron.”

Lotors smirk widened just slightly. “We’ll see.”

The communication ended. Allura buries her head in her hands to keep from screaming. “What should we do?” Coran asked, “Should we fly out to the castle? Try and take it back?”

“We’ll never get past the ships defenses,” she muttered, her mind going a lightyear a minute.

“But...the black lion…”

“I know!” She said, louder and angrier than she meant. “Just...he cant get to it anymore than we can. Not right now, at least. The best thing we can do is get the red lion and take him on then.”

“But, we’ve been TRYING to find the red lion with no luck! Until the galra leaves the E-arthlings side—“

“We can’t wait that long,” Allura said, “we have to move NOW. E-arthling or not.”

She expected him to protest, to complain about the sanctity of the planets natives. Instead, she saw for once exactly how very old, tired, and worried coran really was. “Yes, princess,” he said, knowing she was right, but hating it with every part of his being.

 

“Hey, Pidge,” Shiro said, rapping on the door with his prosthetic, “you’ve been quiet for a while, whatcha up to?”

There was no response. Shiro wasn’t worried. Pidge was a quiet kid who wore headphones a lot. She probably couldn’t hear. “Pidge, you want a snack or something?”

Slowly he opened the door….to find it empty. “Pidge?” He asked the room, “are you in here?”

There was no response. Now he was worried. More so when he found a note on the bed in messy handwriting. ‘Shiro,’ it read, ‘gone cryptid hunting. Keith with me for protection. Sorry, but I shouldn’t be grounded anyway. Be back before dinner.’

For several seconds, Shiro couldn’t breath. Then, he snapped into action, rushing to the open window to search for any signs of the missing child, meeting only the empty street. “Matt’s gonna kill me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I commissioned art work from [Foxyjoy-art](http://foxyjoy-art.tumblr.com/) for this fic and it looks AMAZING. She's busy with commissions right now, but be sure to follow her to see when it's posted, and I'll make sure to include the link here!


	6. Heartbreak Hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Keith meet a pair of strange people while cryptid hunting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cried writing this. I wrote it at work. Mistakes were made.

“Okay,” Pidge said, balancing her scanning equipment in one hand, “I think out here in Texas, the best chance at finding a cryptid will be Bigfoot,” She said to Keith, who padded along beside her. “Technically a lot of sightings of him are further west, but it’s possible there’s a whole lot of them, spread out over the country side.”

Keith nodded beside her, determination on his face matching her own. “Now, bigfeet, or squashes, as Matt calls them, are probably going to be in wooded areas…” She thought for a moment, “The Park! Of course!” 

She ran down, Keith galloping beside her, keeping up easily. It didn’t take long for her to get winded, but she kept running anyway. “Okay,” She said, reaching the entrance, “We need to look for clues. Some tracks a squash might have left behind.” 

Keith nodded and leaped to the nearest tree, circling and sniffing it. He looked a little more like a dog than a cat at that moment. “You smell something boy?” 

He nodded and lowered himself down to the base of the tree, sniffing at a hole in the roots. Like a cobra, he struck, digging his arm down into the tree and wrapping his claws around something that went “Squeak!”

He pulled it out and presented the squirming animal to Pidge, “No, Keith, that’s a squirrel!” Pidge said. Keith’s ear cocked, confused. “Put it down.”

Reluctantly, Keith dropped the squirrel, and it rushed up to the tips of the tree as fast as its little legs could carry it. A nut dropped, landing on Keith square in his forehead. His ears flattened, annoyed. 

“Squashes are BIG, Keith,” Pidge said, “Like, like THIS big!” She raised her arm up as high as it would go, flattening her hand to indicate height. “They don’t live IN the trees, we have to find signs of them, like claw marks, or footprints, or—“

“—tire tracks!” Pidge’s head whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice. In the middle of the field was Lance, driving his very own hovercart, Hunk jogging behind him. “See? It leaves no trace at all! So mom can’t get mad at me for driving it in the house!”

“You can still bump into things,” Hunk chastised, “And it still makes marks on the grass!” 

“Not as much, though!” Lance said, “Best early birthday present EV—“ Lance brought the hovercart to a quick halt as he came upon Pidge and Keith lurking in the trees. The cart wobbled, the hover mechanism not used to such sudden moves, and Lance nearly fell out. “What are YOU doing here?” 

Pidge screwed up her face, “None of your business, what are YOU doing here?”

“I asked you first!”

“I asked you second!” 

“C’mon, guys,” Hunk pleaded, “Can’t we get along?”

“I don’t get along with cheaters!” Lance said, turning his nose up at her.

Pidge gaped, “I don’t cheat!”

“You did in that hovercart race,” Lance said, “You ran your cart way off the tracks! That’s against the rules! That's cheating.”

“That’s not the same thing!” Pidge yelled at him, “You’re just mad that my CAT can drive a hovercart better than you!”

“Cats can’t drive hovercarts, dummy!”

“MINE can!” Pidge said, indicating Keith, “Keith’s super smart, he’s probably the smartest cat alive!”

“That’s dumb,” Lance said, “You’re dumb!” 

“YOU’RE dumb!”

“Guys, please, come on—“

They were cut off by a hiss from Keith. Pidge looked down. His ears were perked up, turning to the trees. “What the hell!” Lance yelled, backing away from the animal, “Keep that freak cat away from me!”

Pidge ignored him, leaning down, “What is it, boy?”

All at once, Keith hunched, tense, backing away slowly, ears flat to his head. “Something out there?” Pidge guessed, “Is it…is it Galra?”

Keith shook his head. Pidge say him tremble in fear. 

A dart went whizzing past them. It landed by Hunk, who screamed and jumped back several feet. “Ah!! What was that?!”

A second dart flew by, this one missing Keith by inches. He grabbed Pidge’s hand harshly, making her drop her scanning equipment, and ran, pulling her along.

“Hey!” Pidge said, “Slow down! I dropped my—“

“Ahh!” Lance screamed as Keith pushed him out of the cart onto his butt, “Hey, what do you think you’re—“

Ignoring them, Keith revved up the engines, still holding onto Pidge who was balanced precariously behind him, and took off out of the park.

“Not agaaaaain!” Pidge cried out, clutching onto Keith and making fists in his fur. She yelped as another dart hit the side of the cart. Looking at it, it almost seemed like the shots she got at the doctor. “Keith! What’s happening?!”

“Alteans,” Keith grumbled back at her.

“What the heck are Alteans?!” She screamed over the wind.

Keith didn’t answer, but did stop the cart suddenly, lurching the cart and nearly launching Pidge out of it.

Keith caught her again, but was staring at the figure who stood in front of her. It was a woman, and Pidge had the strange feeling that he’d seen her before. She had dark skin and silver hair…and a hairband falling down to reveal pointed ears.

Pidge blinked at her in amazement. “…elves…” she whispered. Of all the creatures she expected to find, elves were not one of them. 

The woman rubbed her cheeks, make-up coming off to reveal two glowing pink marks beneath her eyes. “Galra,” She accused Keith, pointing a dart gun at him, “You have something of mine. I want it back.”

In answer, Keith threw the cart into reverse, backing up and away. 

He was stopped at the sight of another figure, this one a pale red-haired man, with a mustache….and the same odd marks (his in blue) and pointed ears. Also he had a similar dart gun. 

Keith looked between them, trying to decide. He jammed his foot on the peddle, swerving so hard the edge of the cart screeched along the ground. 

He headed straight for a tow truck, and pidge caught on to what he was doing a second before he did it, giving just enough time to duck her head down and scream.

The cart hovered up and over the truck’s ramp, allowing Keith to propel it up and over the low roof of the shop on the street. “So wait,” Pidge shouted over the engine as he pushed them over the row of rooftops, “YOURE a galra?”

“Time no!” Keith growled at her. 

Pidge screamed as there was a jump between roofs. “Why are they after you?” She demanded, “what do you have?!” He only ever wore her old baggy shirt so she couldn’t think of what he could be hiding.

“Time no!” He shouted over his shoulder. 

“Time yes!” She said, “you’re my cat, you have to tell me what’s going on!”

He growled again, frustrated. “Me squash,” he said to her, then pointed down at the woman who was chasing them. “She hunt.”

As she watched, pidge was amazed to see the elf woman keeping pace with them, even when they were going so fast.

Pidge tried to decipher his broken English. He was a squash, like Bigfoot? No, he was LIKE squash, a cryptid of some kind. And she wanted him...why? Because he was rare?

Behind them, the woman leapt up to the rooftop, continuing the chase from their level, while her companion followed on the ground, “You can’t run forever, galra. Your pet e-arthling can’t save you now!”

Pidge tensed, and would have squeezed Keith tighter if she wasn’t already using all her might. “That forest up there,” she said, pointing, “It’s a shortcut to the house.”

Keith nodded sharply, and pulled at the hovercart controls. Pidge yelped again as the cart jerked off the roof, the hover mechanism not strong enough to stop them bouncing off the ground and wobbling wildly. Pidge lost her grip and fell, but Keith held onto her by her shirt, driving one-handed.

The hover cart was not meant to be taken through densely wooded areas, and even though the patch of trees wasn’t particularly dense, it was hard to navigate through. Pidge continually dodged low hanging branches, and the hovercart made awful noises as the long grass beneath them beat on the undercarriage.

Worse yet, the woman was still following them. 

 

“Piiidge!” Shiro called through the forest, “Pidge! Katie? Please tell me you didn’t go far!”

Shiro wasn’t ready to call Matt, even though he was sure Matt would have wanted him to call immediately. But Matt was so scared about not getting a job this morning, Shiro couldn’t bring himself to calling him back from his search, unless he was SURE it was an emergency. 

He heard something loud making its way through the forest. “Piiidge!” He called again.

Relief rushed through him at the sound of Pidges voice calling “Shiro!” In fact, he was so relieved he almost missed the second part of the sentence, “Go that way, Shiro can protect us!”

“What?” He muttered, mostly to himself. He heard the rush of an engine and something crashing through the trees, heading straight for him.

When they came into view all he could say was, “is the cat driving the-whoa!” Before the cart barreled past him, nearly driving through him. 

“Stop! Stoop!” Pidge cried, aggressively patting Keith on the back, “stop! You’re gonna crash!”

There was the sound of breaking metal, and shiro recognized the parking brake in Keith’s hand (claw?) before the cart went spiraling into Pidge and Matt’s House.

There was silence after the crash, the strange combination of loud then immediate quiet pushing Shiros mind back to the Kerberos crash, back to floating out in the middle of space.

All at once, he snapped back to reality and ran, “Pidge?” He called again, making his way to the broken wood and glass and metal. He was met with only silence, the scariest noise he’d ever heard. “Oh god, Pidge no. PIDGE!”

 

Far behind shiro, Allura and coran watched him approach the crash. Allura stepped forward, but coran held her back. “Now's our chance! He’s galra, he could have survived easily, we have to go now!”

“Law enforcement will be here any tick,” he said, “and it’s going to delay our plans a lot longer if we’re taken into custody.”

Allura scowled, her gaze lingering on the galra’s furry foots still visible. “I’m getting tired of retreating,” she told him. 

He nodded, “I know.”

 

Police and an ambulance arrived on the scene before Matt did. Shiro hadn’t let go of Pidge the entire time he waited, as she was miraculously okay, and he was worried putting her down might break her. 

“Pidge!” Matt cried out, jumping out of Shiros car and running over. She was currently being checked by the paramedic, who was amazed she had not suffered so much as a concussion. She was spinning some wild story about her cat wrapping himself around her to save her, a story that made the paramedic expect brain damage, but she checked out okay.

Matt kneeled in front of her, not being able to decide between cradling her face, or ruffling her hair or hugging her. “Oh god, Pidge-Podge are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Please don’t blame Keith!” She said, “Please! He didn’t do anything wrong, it was the mean elf lady!”

Matt stared confused at her, like she was speaking an alien language. He did tear his gaze from her for a second, though, to notice Keith curled up protectively at her feet, he had bits of wood shrapnel caught in his fur, but otherwise seemed uninjured. “Pidge...I’m not going to blame Keith,” he said. Pidge sighed in relief, her biggest concern dealt with. “I AM going to ask why you left the house?! You know you’re not allowed to go out alone, especially when you’re grounded!”

“I wasn’t alone!” Pidge protested, “Keith was—“

“Keith is a cat!” Matt said angrily.

Pidge shook her head, “no, he’s not, he’s a galra,” she said earnestly. “And he protected me! He’s good.”

“Pidge…” Matt said, keeping his voice measured, “that doesn’t negate the fact you were GROUNDED. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t snuck out!”

“Yes it would have!” Pidge said, “the elf lady was after him, she’s been chasing him a while, and would have come for him no matter where we were!”

“Pidge! Stop it!” He yelled at her, “stop with your imaginations! It’s not real! None of that is real! Keith is just a cat, and he can’t talk and he can’t drive hover carts and there’s no elf chasing after him! You have to take responsibility for what you’ve done, you—“

“Matt,” Shiro said softly.

In his fury, Matt turned on him, “WHAT?!”

He instantly regretted his words as he saw what Shiro was referring to. A black car pulled up behind the police, and out of it came Mr. Iverson. 

Matt swallowed, his blood running cold. “Katie stay behind me,” he said, standing up to face the social worker. Mr. Iverson chatted idly with the police for a moment. Matt steeled himself, waiting for his approach. 

Finally, Iverson stepped up, his eyes sweeping the scene. “Mr. Iverson,” Matt said, trying to control his breathing, “This...this was all just an accident. No one got hurt, no one…” He quelled under the look Iverson gave him. 

When he stayed silent, Matt tried again. “In...in the good news department, the grocery needs another clerk,” he said, “I start training next week, I...It has benefits…”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” Iverson said, surveying the damage to the house. “Circumstances have...changed.”

Matt shook his head, trying desperately to keep the tears at bay. “You…” he muttered, “You can’t! Please, she needs me, I—we had one more day, you can’t do this she needs—“

“Is THIS what he needs?” Iverson yelled, waving at the house. Matt lost the ability to speak, staring into Iversons hard, angry eyes. “Keith, come with me.” Iverson ordered.

“You can’t take him!” Pidge cried, holding the back of Keith’s t-shirt protectively. She had attached herself to him so well she forgot she once wore that name herself. “He didn’t do anything wrong! You can’t!”

“Pidge,” Matt dropped to his knees again, facing her. “Katie…” he wasn’t sure the next time someone would call her that, the name they’d chosen together. “Katie come here,”

Pidge frowned, confused. Slowly, when she was decently sure they weren’t trying to take her cat, she let go, and allowed Matt to hug her. 

Matt held her with all his might, as though with just his strength he could hold onto this moment in Time, hold onto her forever. He couldn’t stop the tears anymore as they forced themselves past his eyelids and down his cheeks. “No matter what happens,” he whispered to her, “no matter what happens, you are my sister, and..." his voice started shaking, “and you are wonderful and beautiful just the way you are, and no one can change that, okay? No one. And…” he sobbed, the tears flowing freely now, “and I love you with all of my heart.”

Pidge pulled away from him, looking between his eyes. “I..” She said, “I don’t understand.” Matt sobbed again, holding her shoulders, trying to absorb her and how she looked to him all at once. “Matt?”

“Times up,” Iverson said, and grabbed Pidge at the elbow. Just like that, she was pulled out of his arms. Matt felt his insides pulled out with her, leaving him an empty shell.

“Matt!” Pidge cried out as Iverson dragged her away. “Let go of me! Matt!” Pidge kicked and screamed with all her might, the officers and paramedics watching as they packed up, ready to head out themselves. 

Matt wanted desperately to go to her, to run to her and tug her back, run away and hold onto her forever, but he knew he would only make things worse for her that way. Instead he stared and watched as she was pulled away towards the car. Distantly, he felt Shiro holding onto him, keeping him upright, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore, all that he had done, everything he’d done from the moment his parents died...it was all for nothing. 

A growl ripped through the air, the only thing that could distract Matt at that moment. 

Keith leapt forward before anyone could stop him, a blur of purple fur rushing Iverson down and latching onto the arm that held Pidge. 

Iverson screamed into the air as Keith dug in, releasing Pidge on instinct. Only when Pidge had stumbled away several feet did Keith release him, blood trickling out of his suit. Keith growled at him, and the police who had been alerted by iversons scream to come intervene. He stood between Pidge and all of them, not letting a soul come close. 

Pidge wrapped her arms around his neck. They were about the same size, but Keith was strong enough to hold her as she climbed onto his back. “Take me somewhere safe, boy.” She said. 

To the amazement of all those watching, Keith nodded, just before diving back into the trees and out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *thumbs up emoji* This is fine.


	7. Jailhouse Rock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith takes Pidge somewhere safe, or so he thinks.

“Which way did she go?” Lance said looking around the corners of the trees, scowling. 

“I don’t know!” Hunk said, tripping over branches behind him, “Maybe we should head back?” 

“We can’t!” Lance said, “If I go back without my hovercart, my mom’s gonna KILL me!” He whined, his ankle rolling, making him have to catch himself on a tree. “WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE THIEF?!”

“Katie?” Hunk called a little more calmly. “Katie? Where’d you go---AHHHH!!!”  
Hunk was knocked over by a blur of purple fur. 

The beast leaped over him and bounded away through the trees toward the park. “Sorry!” Katie called as they ran away.

“What the…” Hunk said, watching them leave, “Was that Katie?”

“It was that freak cat!” Lance said, using his long legs to chase them, “Come on!”

 

Pidge didn’t do anything but hold onto Keith as he ran off, down the streets, down places she’d never been before. She didn’t know where he was taking her, but he seemed to know, so she pressed her face into his T-shirt and let herself get taken. 

She couldn’t get the image of Matt out of her head, crying and so…blank. But he let Iverson grab her and take her away. Why did he…

She didn’t want to think about that. 

Soon enough they had been running so long, she noticed they were not going in a linear direction. “Where are we going?”

“Safe,” He grunted at her. 

Pidge didn’t know what that meant. Was there a place that was called ‘safe?’ 

Keith must have been walking an hour before Pidge finally said, “Keith…it’s hot…”

“Safe far.” Keith told her. He quickened his pace slightly. 

Pidge was getting worried. She wanted to go back home…but Iverson was back there, and he’d no doubt try to take her away again. So she stayed quiet. 

“Keith,” She said as they made it out of town, “I’m hungry…”

“Safe closer.” She figured that meant they were almost there. 

They walked out into the Texan desert, making their way to the mountains. “Keith…” Katie said after a while longer, “’m thirsty.” 

“Safe close.”

Pidge was close to falling asleep before she was woken up by sudden darkness. Blinking her eyes open, she found they had made it into a cave. The coolness of it made her feel better. 

“Safe here,” Keith said, letting her down. She rubbed her eyes and stood beside him. 

“This? This is safe?” Pidge asked, looking around the dark cave. Keith plodded forward, Pidge following him.

Just before they lost all the light from the mouth of the cave, Pidge made out two pinpricks of light. “Safe.” 

Pidge looked up at the light. They looked like eyes, a pair of giant yellow eyes, coming out of a giant metal beast. A beast that…that… “Is that a cat?”

“Red lion,” Keith said, approaching. The giant cat bent down towards them. Pidge flinched back, but Keith stood firm, “Lion is safe.” The lion opened it’s mouth, lowering a ramp to them. 

“Is—“ Pidge didn’t dare hope, “Is that a SPACESHIP?!” 

Keith nodded. Pidge giggled maniacally and ran up the ramp looking around. She sat in the pilots chair, and couldn’t even reach any of the controls. “These look like a different language! Is this your language? What does it say. Nothing’s really responding, is this YOUR ship, Keith?” 

She looked behind her. Keith was gone. “Keith?” She asked. There was a noise outside. She went down to try and look down the ramp, only to find the ramp had been rolled up. “Keith? What is—“

“Well…” She heard a voice with a smooth British accent, “It seems like you were useful after all.”

She ran back up to the control room, looking out the lion’s eyes. There was a tall purple man with elf ears standing in front of Keith, who was curled up on the ground. The laser gun in the purple man’s hand gave the obvious answer of what happened. 

Before her eyes, she saw a blue shield come up between the lion and the purple man. She couldn’t quite here what the purple man was saying anymore, and was pretty sure he was speaking an alien language. The first word she could make out was “Zethrid!” 

Another fluffy purple alien, this one buff and tall, came up behind them, attaching things to the cave wall. Keith shook his head, shaking, no match for the aliens, although he tried. The purple man only tossed him to the side. 

The devices on the wall blinked and exploded leading out to the open sky beyond. “Keith!” She shouted out of the spaceship. 

Another spaceship hovered outside, level with the lion. It sent a beam out, and Pidge felt the lion lurch. “KEITH!” Pidge cried out, banging on the window. Keith stayed curled up on the ground. 

The lion was tugged out of the cave and hung uselessly in the sky as the spaceship took it away. 

 

“Lance we should REALLY head back,” Hunk begged. 

Lance hesitated, breathing heavily as he looked out at the edge of town. Truth be told, he was wondering if Hunk wasn’t right. If they stayed out much longer, they’d risk not getting back until after nightfall. And as much as he didn’t want to return without the hovercraft, returning late was possibly worse. Still, though, he had this weird feeling like he should keep going. He chewed his lip, debating. 

“Matt, we should REALLY head back,” they both heard a voice say. 

Looking around, they saw two men, one who looked a lot like Katie. That one was walking towards them…fast, the second trailing behind. 

“I’m not going back,” Matt said, “Not until I find her. I failed her once I can’t do it again.”

“Matt, you know that’s not—“ They froze as the adults came across the children. “Who are you?”

Hunk clutched onto Lance. “Ah! Stranger Danger!” 

“Hunk, it’s just Katie’s brother,” Lance said, recognizing him from school.

Matt frowned down at the boy. “Are you…” he muttered, “Do you go to school with Katie?”

The boy nodded, and said, “We were following them, her damn cat stole my hovercart!”

Hunk gasped, “You said a bad word…” 

Matt took a deep breath, “Have you seen her?” he begged, ignoring the awkwardness about knowing exactly what happened to the hovercart. 

“We were chasing her down here, along with her cat,” the boy…Matt thought his name was Lance, the kid who had gotten into a fight with Pidge, “They went this way.”

“Matt, stop,” Shiro said as Matt leapt into action, trying to go down the path Lance pointed out, “We at least have to get these kids home. We’re too far out, we can’t leave them on their own.”

“You take them back,” Matt spit at him, “I’ll keep going.” 

As he tried to walk away again, Shiro grabbed his arm, reminding him how much stronger Shiro was. “I’m not letting you wander around out here alone. That’s not helping you, and it won’t help Katie. We need to work with the police, come up with a good search plan.”

“Who KNOWS where she could be by then!” Matt shouted at him. 

BANG!

All four jumped at the loud noise, looking up to the mountains. They watched in amazement as a giant flying ship dragged a giant mechanical cat out of the mountain. “What the FUCK?!” Shiro shouted.

“Bad word!” Hunk shouted as they watched it fly away. 

The trees were blown back and they each covered their faces from the dust and dirt that swirled around them. By the time it had settled, Matt was already running towards the mountain. “MATT!” Shiro called after him, running as well, “What are you doing?!”

“Somehow this is all related, I’m sure of it!” Matt called. 

Behind them, Lance took off after Shiro. “What are YOU doing?!” Hunk demanded, running after him.

“What?” Lance said, “You want to wander around WITHOUT the responsible adults?”

Hunk whined, wanting to say that they specifically WEREN’T responsible adults, but knew that wouldn’t convince Lance anyway. 

They reached the base of the mountain, right by the cave that had crumbled at the explosion. A point of purple guided them to the mouth.

Keith stumbled out of the cave, having been in the center of two crashes that day. His fur and t-shirt were matted, covered in grime and blood. He shook and rolled out of the cave, laying on his back and watching hopelessly as the red lion was taken away.

“You!” Matt demanded, plucking him off the ground and holding him by the scruff, “Where is she?”

“Matt…” Shiro said hesitantly, “it’s a cat…”

“Pidge says he can talk,” Matt demanded not entirely believing himself, “so talk.”

Keith looked up at him, his yellow eyes weary. “Not...safe…”

Matt screamed at the sound and dropped him on the ground. Keith grunted, curling up on himself to ease the pain. 

“What IS that thing?” Lance asked looking down at Keith. 

“He’s a galra,” a woman behind them said. 

They all turned to see a dark skinned woman with white hair and pointed ears come out of the woods, a pale man with a mustache and pointed ears behind her. “Elves…” Matt muttered to himself, remembering the story Pidge had told him.

The woman marched over to Keith, who tried to scramble away but she only squatted down beside him, not showing any sign of attacking. “So. You led them to the lion after all.” He winced. “Why didn’t they take you with them, cub?”

“ahem,” the mustache man said, “first deal with the e-arthlings, then questions.” He cleared his throat, “lovely people, you can rest assured all you’ve seen today is a part of some special effects for a moving picture we’re making. So, you can go home and be safe in the knowledge NOTHING strange is happening.” He smiled and made shooing motions at them. 

None of them moved. “Where is Katie?” Matt demanded.

The mustached man looked taken aback. “What’s a Katie?”

“KATIE!” Matt yelled in his face, “she’s a little girl, this big, and she’s the smartest, fiercest little girl in the whole world, and that THING took her!” He said, pointing aggressively at Keith.

Keith lifted himself up on his arms “Lotor ko daka.” He said, his voice ragged. 

The woman looked confused, but not as confused as Matt. “What’d he say?” 

“He…” the woman said, “he...he said Lotor...the galra prince...took her.”

Matt frowned. “I thought you said he was galra?”

“He is,” she said, as though to defend herself “I don’t understand…” she was cut off as Keith kept talking in the odd guttural language. “He says...he says Lotor stole him from his mother. The galran druids identified him as a possible Paladin for the red lion.” The more Keith spoke, the more confused Allura became. “He managed to escape and was hoping to use the lion to run away, and the lion told him to hide her here where they couldn’t track him, but he felt forced to come back to it when his...your what?”

“Pidge,” Keith repeated, looking directly at Matt.

“His...Pidge was in danger. So he took her here, and Lotor found him. He tried to fight him, but Lotor’s fully grown, and he’s still a cub.”

“Cub?” Shiro asked, instantly concerned, “You...you’re saying Keith is only a kid?”

Matt swallowed. Keith was so big for a cat, he’d never considered that he was a child. He felt a pang of sympathy for him, but he only had one concern right now. “Alright, I didn’t understand about half of that,” he said, fear running through him like a live wire, “but if Pidge is taken, we need to go and get her!”

The elves exchanged a concerned look. “We lost our ship,” she said, sadly, “and with the red lion taken…”

He winced, “what are you saying?” He demanded, knowing exactly what she was saying, “that there’s nothing we can do? That she’s...that she’s go-“ he couldn’t get the word out, the tears he thought he had all cried out coming up fresh and burning at his eyes. Shiro grabbed his shoulders, holding him.

That is, until he very suddenly let go, “Hey, kid!” He shouted, “get away from there!”

Matt blinked his tears away as much as he could to see Lance climbing the rocks, heading into the ruins of the cave. “There’s something in here, I’m telling ya!” He shouted back, “I can...I can feel something!”

“Lance! No!” Hunk said. His protests were squashed as Keith raced after Lance and Shiro, the elves chased after Keith, and Matt chased after the elves. “Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?”

Lance deftly jumped up over the rocks. “Yeah, I’m getting a really weird feeling here…” he traced his fingers along the walls. 

“This feeling,” the elf woman asked, “is it like a tugging? Almost a voice in your head, a voice that’s unfamiliar, but feels like a close friend?”

“Yeah!” Lance shouted back to her, “thats...that’s exactly it!”

“Coran, you don’t think…” She asked, but she was cut off when the cave started glowing beneath lances hand. Suddenly, the entire cave was lit up with blue glowing carvings of lions and people, and a language Matt couldn’t understand. The elf woman gasped, “of course! That’s why we couldn’t trace this place! She must have found a way to block signals in the 10,000 years!”

“Who did?” Matt asked. 

The elf woman turned to him excited. “The blue li—AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”

They all screamed as the floor suddenly broke beneath them and they all fell far below.


	8. Blue Suede Shoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the newly found Blue Lion, the group of Alteans, Humans, and one Galra go on a rescue mission to save Pidge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is action anyway

“One down,” Lotor said, looking up at the red lion sitting in it’s particle barrier, “3 to go.”

“Prince!” Acxa shouted, “There’s a ship on an intercept course from Earth.”

Lotor raised an eyebrow, “I thought Earth didn’t have he technology to match our speeds.” 

Acxa went quiet, looking at her screen. “I think you need to see this,” she said, turning the screen to face him. 

Lotor’s eyebrows peaked in surprise as he saw the Blue Lion flying at them. “Well, well, looks like the Princess found a treasure we missed. How kind of her to come bring it to us.”

Just as quickly as it flew in, the lion disappeared. “Axca…”

“Sorry,” She said, quickly readjusting the visual monitor, “The lion’s path is erratic, it’s hard to track on sensors.”

“Hmm…” Lotor said, “Using an unpredictable flight plan to help avoid our sensors and weapons. Clever, Princess. Unorthodox, but, clever.”

 

“CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHO’S BRILLIANT IDEA IT WAS TO HAVE A SEVEN-YEAR OLD PILOT AN ALIEN WARSHIP?!” Matt shouted, clutching onto a control panel in the blue lion for dear life. 

With only the one small seat that Lance occupied, Matt, Shiro, Hunk, Keith, Allura, and Coran (who told them all their names once they had found said blue lion) were all bouncing around the cockpit with every hard turn. Hunk was crying and clutching onto Shiro’s legs. Shiro in turn was holding Keith in one arm, and grabbing the wall in his other. 

“The Blue Lion will only respond to a new paladin once it declares it’s chosen one to be unavailable,” Allura said as she was thrown off her hold and knocked into Coran, crushing him into the opposite wall, “We can’t take control from him, even if the lion would accept one of us.” 

“What if we knock him out?” Matt suggested, trying to maneuver himself so he didn’t squish Hunk, “Would the lion accept one of us then?”

“Matt, what have we said about attacking children?” Shiro chastised. 

“Hey!” Lance said, his entire face furrowed in concentration, “I’m doing my best! My Mama always said I was a natural born pilot!” 

“Mama wrong,” Keith said, curled into Shiro’s side and trying not to lose his lunch. 

Lance turned around angrily in his seat, only for all of the adults to yell at once, “EYES FORWARD!”

Coran just hooked himself onto Lance’s chair so that he might see the screens. “There, E-arthling! That’s the ship you need to head for!” 

Lance adjusted the controls, creating another hard turn, but re-adjusted quickly “Hey! I’m doing it!” 

“No,” Allura said, watching the controls, “The ship’s coming for us!”

In a flash of blue light, the lion was rocked again, but this time not from a sharp turn, but the blasts hitting the ship. “Try to get to the other side of that dwarf planet!” Coran called, “We’re faster than the ship, it’ll take a few minutes for it to catch up for a clear shot.”

Lance moved the controller where directed, but overcompensated, sending all the passengers up to the ceiling, Lance only managing to hold onto the handle. 

“Hey, Kid,” Shiro said in an oddly calm voice given the situation, “Deep breath okay? Just use gentle, slow movements.” The ship leveled out, and they all dropped back down, many on their faces. Shiro knelt by Lance’s chair, putting Keith down, and Hunk went to go hug Matt instead. “It’s not like driving a hovercart, okay? It’s like…It’s like carrying an egg. You ever bring your mama an egg when she’s cooking?” Lance nodded, “Hold the controls like that. Only use a little force to get where you want to go.”

Lance nodded more and did as was requested of him. They made it to the other side of the planet and paused, everyone taking their collective breaths. Lance looked up to Shiro in awe, “How’d you know how to do that stuff?”

“You ever hear of Takashi Shirogane?” Shiro asked, cocky smile on his face. 

“The pilot of the Kerberos mission?” Lance asked. Shiro nodded, and then pointed to himself. “You—You’re!!!” Lance’s eyes went as round as dinner plates as he realized who he’d been hanging out with this whole time. 

Allura, meanwhile, held her hands out to Matt. “Give me the Galra cub.” Keith was currently wrapped around Matt’s other leg, the one Hunk wasn’t still sobbing into. 

“What?” Matt asked, “Why?”

“He’s the Red Paladin, apparently,” She said, “There’s a pod here on the Blue Lion. I’ll use it to sneak aboard so he can get the Red Lion—and your ‘Pidge’—while I take back my ship.” 

“Not without me, you’re not,” Matt said.

“Absolutely not!” Allura shouted, “This mission is dangerous enough as it is with two CHILDREN on that ship, not to mention the two others that will remain here! I can’t take the time to protect you!” 

“That is MY sister,” Matt said, “This is MY cat…sort of…and I’m going with you.”

“And that is MY ship!” Allura says, “and I will be taking it back.”

“What, by yourself?” Matt asked, “With a couple of kids to help you?”

“Coran will be out here helping with the Blue lion,” Allura said, “Besides, what exactly do you think YOU’RE going to do.”

Matt looked out to where the castle ship was going to come through any moment ready to fire at them. “Your ship runs on computers, I assume,” he said. She nodded. “Well then, you’re just lucky enough to have nabbed one of the best hackers on Earth. You get me my sister, I’ll get you your ship.”

Allura looked to Coran for advice, but it was Keith who pulled on her dress and said, “Matt comes too,” in the best English he could muster.

Allura exhaled harshly through her nose, her mouth pursed. “Fine. You take the cub.” She pushed Keith towards him and turned to make it to the pod bay. 

He was about to follow her when Shiro grabbed onto his arm. “Hey,” Shiro said, face screwed up, “You…you stay safe, okay?”

Matt finally softened into sympathy as he remembered the last time Shiro went into space with a pair of Holts. “I’ll come back. You stay in one piece this time, okay?” he said, jokingly patting Shiro’s missing arm. 

Shiro smiled, looking over to Allura. “Hey,” he said to Matt, “This is probably the worst moment for this and not the right mood at all, but it’s also the last moment, so, um, how do you feel about a ‘we’re in something way over our heads and we’re kinda scared about it so could use the extra encouragement’ kiss?”

Matt blinked at him rapidfire, absorbing his words. “You know, I don’t think I’ve had any of those before,” He said, “Not sure I’m in the mood to try something new right now.”

Shiro nodded, “How about just a ‘good luck’ kiss, then?”

Matt smiled. “I could do that.”

Shiro swooped in, quickly capturing Matt’s lips in his, not having the time to be gentle and slow. Unseen to them, Coran stared in fascination, while the three children stuck their tongues out in disgust.

“If you insist on coming I suggest you come NOW!” Allura said, already seated in the pod. 

Matt and Shiro broke the kiss, but held hands for a final moment. “We’ll talk more about this later,” Matt said, “When the world makes sense again.”

“After today,” Shiro said, “I’m not sure the world will ever make sense.”

“E-Arthling!” Allura shouted. Keith tugged on Matt’s hand and Matt finally left. 

It was almost relaxing as the pod detached from the Blue Lion. Allura was clearly a more trained pilot than Lance, and so it remained steady. However, the pod was also clearly designed for one person, not two and a half. Keith was curled in Matt’s lap as they flew out. 

Matt remembered back to his old days at the Garrison. He hadn’t gone further than the upper atmosphere back then, but he remembered feeling kinda free and floaty. This felt more claustrophobic and awkward. 

“So,” Matt said as they flew for the castle, “How do we get aboard the ship?”

“Um,” Allura said, avoiding his eyes. 

“You don’t have a plan?” he demanded of her. 

“Hey,” She said, “I’m flying by the seat of my jadfans here just as much as anyone else, so unless you have something useful to say—“

“Here’s something useful,” Matt said, “TURN!”

Allura jammed her controls to the side, just managing to whiz past a laser blast sent from the castle. 

There was less room to bounce around in the pod, but it was also easier to feel every quick turn and dive.

And it was a lot more painful to feel when Allura couldn’t dodge, and the ship got hit.

Badly hit.

 

“Come on,” Pidge said, tugging with all her might on the control stick in the Red Lion. “C’mon! Go!” She had managed to pry out the panels to one of the electrical systems, but it was nothing like anything she’d ever seen before, nothing like her circuit boards back home. So her best bet was to turn it on. “C’mon! You’re Keith’s ship, right?” She begged it, “So take me back to him!”

So far as she could tell, the Night Elf King, who she was naming the purple man who had shot Keith, didn’t know about her existence, and couldn’t get past the weird wall that had been put up around the lion. 

But, on the other hand, she couldn’t LEAVE the lion either. The ramp was pulled tightly closed, so there was no escaping. 

She curled up on the seat, hugging her knees to her chest. She had never felt more lost and confused, not even the day Matt came to her school and pulled her out of class to tell her that her parents had died. The feelings were to big for her, and she didn’t understand, so she did what all little girls did when they were scared and confused and upset and cried, cried until she didn’t feel like she could cry anymore.

“Please, Matt,” She begged in the same voice she used to call for her Mommy and Daddy when she had a nightmare, “Please find me, Matt.”

Curled up as she was, she didn’t notice the particle barrier going down. She DID notice the lion suddenly starting to move, jostling her inside. 

The lights had gone on. She tested tugging on the controls again but they didn’t respond any more now than they had before. Wherever they were going, she could not stop it nor do anything else about it. 

She watched avidly through the screen, the ceiling above them giving way to the lion, the expanse of stars, more stars than she’d seen in her entire life, pressing in, the lines of the ship outside passing by and then, straight ahead, a small blue spaceshift, badly scorched and sitting dead in space. 

In the corner of the eyes of the lion, she saw a flash of blue, and pressed herself up to look. There…there was another Lion! This one blue and flying with lasers coming out of it’s mouth and tail, trying to cover for the small ship.

Pressed up against the window, she was able to see inside the pod for a split second, only processing one image, “Matt!”

There was a burst of air and she was thrown back into her chair for a moment. Something banged behind her and then the world was calm. 

The ramp had opened up, letting air out of the lion, and the small ship had been swallowed up, crashing down to the back of the lion. “Matt!” 

She jumped down, running towards the smoking ship. The top of it popped open, and she was shocked to see not Matt, but the Elf Woman pop out. “The Day Elf Queen,” She said, backing up.

The Elf Queen frowned at her, confused, “Why does everyone keep calling me an elf? What’s an elf?” 

“Katie?” a coughing voice said behind the Queen, “Katie, is that you?” Matt popped up next, and to her surprise, Keith beside her. 

“MATT!” She said ready to cry again in delight. 

Matt jumped over the remains of the pod and ran to her, instantly scooping her up into his arms. “Oh god, oh god Pidge-Podge,” he said, holding her so tight it almost hurt, “I’m so sorry, I’m so so so sorry Katie, I swear, I’m never letting you go again, not for anything.”

Pidge coughed, “Can…can you let me go now? You’re squishing me.”

Matt let her up a bit, just enough to let her breath. When they were apart, Pidge noticed Keith sitting beside her, old black t-shirt more worn than ever. “Keith! You’re alright!” Keith smiled, holding himself back. She had none of it, grabbing hands onto his shirt and pulling him into a group hug. 

Matt rocked them both in his arms. “I love you, you know that? With all my heart.”

Pidge nodded, holding on, “I was scared, Matt, I was so, so, so scared.”

“It’s okay,” He said, “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you home.”

“One step at a time, E-Arthling,” the Elf Queen said, looking out the eye-windows. Pidge looked to. Without her noticing, the lion had made its way back to the castle, landing right where it had always been. “The Galra are coming."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm flyin by the seat of my jadfans just as much as Allura. Who knows exactly what's gonna happen next? How much longer is this going to take? I dunno. Couple more? At least?


	9. Suspicious Minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt, Allura, and Pidge infiltrate the castle while Shiro coordinates the attack from the outside

“So, let me get this straight,” Matt said, jumping out of the Red Lion onto the deck, “There are 4….mice….living on you spaceship…that you can talk to telepathically?”

“Yes,” Allura said, as though she didn’t understand why that would be confusing. “And they say the Galra are coming this way.

“Sure, why not,” Matt said, following her, “I was just thinking ‘This day hasn’t been weird enough already.’”

“Wait!” Pidge called struggling to lower herself from the mouth of the red lion. It had not lowered it’s head to release them, just opened his mouth, which Matt considered passive-aggressive for a giant robot cat. “Wait for me!”

“Sweetie, no,” Matt called up at her, “Stay in the Red Lion with Keith, he’ll keep you safe.” 

“Why do you have to leave, though?” She said, “and with HER?” 

“I told you, Allura’s on our side, I promise,” he said, “I’m going to help her get her castle back. She’ll keep me safe.”

“Then she can keep me safe too!” Pidge said, dangling from Red’s mouth. 

“She really shouldn’t come with us,” Allura said to Matt. 

“I know that,” he practically hissed, “Pidge, stay there, stay—“

With a squeal, Pidge fell from Red’s mouth. Matt rushed forward to grab her as she did, and she bowled him over onto the ground. “I’m not sure which is going to wear out first…” Matt muttered as Pidge hopped off his stomach, “My heart or my body.”

Allura offered him a hand and he got up. “We need to get moving,” 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Alright, come on, ya disobedient little squirt.” He picked Pidge off the ground and followed Allura to the ventilation shafts as they watched the Red Lion fly off again.

They had just made it to secrecy in time for three aliens to run into a hangar, one tall and buff, one who was red with a strange ponytail/tentacle thing, and the last almost normal looking if it weren’t for the light blue-ish purple skin and purple hair. 

The three alien women watched the Red Lion ascend and disappear. The purple-haired one got on her communicator, “Lotor, the Red Lion has gone again.”

A voice spoke out of it. “Then why did it come back in the first place?”

“We’re not sure,” she said, “Perhaps before it was on autopilot, and now the Cub has re-assumed control.”

“Perhaps,” The voice said, suspicious, “Sweep the area, see if they took something…or left something behind.”

Allura pulled on Matt’s shirt and nodded behind her. He nodded, dragging Pidge along with him through the ventilation shaft. 

 

Outside the ship, the Red lion flew to join Blue. “Great,” Shiro said, looking, over the screens, “We need to give Allura and Matt time to take the castle. Red Lion, open your communications screen.”

An image of Keith sitting small in the red lion’s chair appeared before them. Shiro blinked. “Where’s Pidge?”

“Matt,” Keith said simply. It took a second for Shiro to process that she was WITH Matt. 

Shiro ran a hand through his hair, “Okay,” he said, “Taking on a giant alien castle with two giant robot lions both piloted by children, one who speaks little English, and I have an alien elf and another kid to help me.” He looked to Coran, who seemed confused by the ‘elf’ descriptor. 

Shiro bit his lip, thinking to himself. What would Commander Holt do? “Okay. I can do this. Coran, are there any space suits on this?”

“I have one for myself, yes,” Coran said. 

“Perfect,” Shiro said, “I need you to take it and get to the Red Lion, make sure to translate for Keith best you can.” Coran nodded and went to grab his suit and put it on (a rather elaborate process, it seemed) “Lance, and Keith if you can understand, we need to flank the ship.” The two children stared blankly. “You know, attack it on opposite sides,” He gestured with his hands.

“Ohh,” Lance said, “I call this side!” Keith groaned in annoyance. 

“Okay, okay…” Shiro said, looking around. His movements were hindered by Hunk, who had taken to clinging to his leg again. “Hunk…” He said, looking down at the frightened little boy, “I’m going to need you to watch the communications coming in, okay. Watch for any signs of Matt, Allura, and Pidge. Got it?” 

Hunk squeaked and nodded, releasing Shiro and grabbing the communications panel instead. 

“I’m ready!” Coran said, in his gaudy suit.

Shiro didn’t have time to gawk right now. “Alright. Lance, let him out.”

Coran was unceremoniously spit out of the Blue lion, only to be caught a second later in the Red lion’s mouth. The Red lion backflipped away, effortlessly dodging a blast from the castle and heading to the opposite side of the ship in order to flank it. “Whoa!” Lance said, “How’d you DO that?”

Keith smirked in the video screen as Coran fumbled to get his footing behind him. “Natural born pilot,” Keith said, mimicking Lance’s tone perfectly. 

Lance scowled and went to fire on the alien ship. 

 

“Hurry up,” Allura urged.

“Learning an alien language here,” Matt said, scrolling through the alien controls as best as he could, “Okay…okay, I THINK I’ve gotten into the security mainframe.”

She crowded his shoulder as he pulled up a screen with a map of the castle, and smirked. “Not bad, E-arthling,” She said.

“You know,” Matt said, “We really prefer the term ‘humans.’”

She ignored him, “Can we lock the Galra out of the ships systems?” She asked.

He shook his head, “Not from here. Looks like all the key systems are locked into this area here,” He pointed on the map. 

She nodded, “The control room,” she said, “It seemed like a good safety measure before to have it go through there.”

“Well, it isn’t anymore,” Matt said, zooming in on the security monitors, “There’s two Galra in there. And…a cat. An actual cat this time, not like Keith.” Matt turned to Allura, “I am many things, but a fighter isn’t one, not against giant purple aliens, anyway. You’re like an alien warrior princess, right? Can you take them down?”

Allura sighed, thinking. “Maybe. But…one of those is Lotor. The other is one of his top Generals. And if I fail…”

“Then suddenly me and Pidge are stranded helpless on an alien ship,” Matt said, “Okay, we’ll label that ‘plan b.’ Are there any other ways of accessing the controls? What about this hatch here?”

Allura squinted, looking at where he was pointing. “The maintenance hatch? That’s meant for maintenance droids to access, but we don’t have any of those on the ship anymore. It’s far too small for either of us.” She stared the map down, trying to figure out the best way to solve the problem. “Perhaps I can send my mice down there? Let them handle it?”

Matt shook his head, “They’d need to do some serious re-wiring, it’s too delicate to do without thumbs.”

Allura groaned, looking around. Sitting beside Matt was Pidge, also staring at the map and trying to understand it. “Matt…I have an idea.” She said. 

Matt looked up at her, then followed her gaze. “Absolutely not,” He said, wrapping an arm around Pidge.

“She wouldn’t be in any danger,” Allura said, “As long as she’s quiet. We can feed her directions through our communicators.”

“Have you ever MET a 6 year old kid?” Matt said, “’Quiet’ isn’t usually in their dictionaries!”

“I can do it, Matt,” Pidge said, not understanding what she was agreeing to. “I promise, I’ll be really, really quiet! They won’t even know I’m there.”

“Besides,” Allura said, “What other option do we have?”

Matt squeezed Pidge tighter to him, not having an answer, but not wanting to let go. 

 

In a matter of minutes, Pidge had shimmied herself into the maintenance hatch. It really was small, smaller than she’d been expecting. She moved really slowly, like a ninja, to get through it properly. 

“Okay,” Matt whispered in her ear from the device they gave her, “The first thing you need to do is get into the main processor, so you can re-route the controls.”

“You’re going to want to find a panel labeled ‘processor’” Allura said. Pidge looked all around her. There were all sorts of symbols, none of them labeled ‘processor.’

“It looks like a ‘6’ inside of an equal sign,” Matt said, and she nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. She pried off the panel off with a soft clang, to reveal a bunch of chips and wires all interconnected. 

“What was that?” She heard a muffled voice say. It was the voice of the Night Elf King!

Silence followed and she figured she was safe. She continued following Matt’s instructions. 

After several minutes of working and replacing wires left and right, Pidge was getting hot. She panted, trying to remember how long it had been since she slept or ate or drank. She wasn’t sure. Her hands were all sweaty and the wires pinched her fingers. 

“Almost there,” Matt reassured her, “Just a few more rewirings.”

“Mrrrrow,” She heard beside her. Looking, there was a shadow just outside the hatch, pacing back and forth. Something rubbed up against the door. 

“Found something?” The Night Elf King’s voice sounded. 

“Pidge, get out of there!” Matt shouted. But, she thought, she was so close! She just needed to finish this one thing! “PIDGE! LOTOR’S RIGHT OUTSIDE!” Matt practically screamed, “RUN!”

Panicked, Pidge did the first thing she could think of, and jammed her fist into the control hatch, and pulled on the wires. 

 

Shiro directed the red and blue lions around the battle, trying to hit key areas and distract the laser fire. He felt a gentle tugging on his pants. 

Hunk looked up at him, “They’re talking over the thingy,” Hunk said in a timid voice, pointing at the communications. Shiro went over to listen. 

“—barrier is down. How did you do it?” Allura’s voice said. 

“I didn’t,” Matt said, “I have no controls, I just…a lot of the main systems are just going down! Pidge what did you—“

“Ah, Princess,” a new voice said over the communicator, “I thought you might be on board. I didn’t know you liked using humans who are so small.” Shiro’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t…the bad guy had Pidge? 

“Let her go, you alien freak!” Matt shouted, voice cracking and breaking Shiro’s heart. 

“Your not very good at negotiating, are you, Human?” the voice, Lotor probably, said, “I’ll give you 5 dobashes to surrender, or the little one will get thrown out the nearest airlock.”

There was a moment, a dreadful moment of silence, before Matt said, “What are you doing?”

“Time for plan B,” Allura said, and then the communications went dead.

“We gotta help them!” Lance said, “If they’ve got Katie…”

“I know,” Shiro snapped, perhaps too harshly, thinking a mile a minute. “I know, I know, we have to…we have to do SOMETHING…” His mind was coming up empty, and if he weren’t surrounded by children he had to look strong for he might have cried. He never trained for this, he had no idea what to do…he was lightyears out of his depth.

A small tugging came at his pants again, and Hunk looked up at him, all wide eyes and chubby cheeks, “Um…” he said, wringing his hands, “Um, I think…maybe…I might have an idea…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! I'm 90% sure now this will have 1 more chapter and then an epilogue.  
> phew


	10. Stuck on You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Allura face off against the Galrans, while Shiro puts Hunk's plan into action

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoooooaa genericfanatic updated quickly for once! WTH!

Allura took a deep breath, holding her staff as she stood at the door. She knew Lotor and Narti were on the other side, and she wasn’t sure she could take them both. But she didn’t really think she had any other choice.

A clank sounded beside her, and she jumped nearly out of her skin. 

Matt stood there, holding a pipe that was as tall as he was. “Hey,” He said. 

“What are you doing?” She demanded of him, “I thought you said you’re not a fighter.”

“I’m not,” He said, “But if you’re walking into certain doom anyway, I might as well go with you. Gotta try and protect Pidge anyway.”

Allura exhaled quickly to show her irritation. “I told you, I can’t be looking out for you!”

“And I don’t expect you to.” He said, swallowing. “If I go down…well, maybe I’ll have been able to buy you a couple of seconds.”

She looked him in the eye and saw…he thought he was going to die. He was sure of it. 

She wondered if he saw the same look in her eyes. 

With a press of a button, she opened the door to the control room, and did not see what she expected, ie, Lotor and Narti.

She saw Lotor and all four of his generals, all facing the two of them. 

Lotor stood behind the others, standing over Pidge, who was unconscious on the ground. “Ah, Princess, so kind of you to join us.” He glanced over to Matt. “And…a friend. Fascinating.”

“Let the girl go, Count von Count.” Matt demanded.

Lotor smirked. “I can see why you’re friends. You share the same lack of subtlety.”

“Enough,” Allura said, raising her staff, “If you want me to surrender, then you’re going to have to earn it.”

Lotor looked somewhere between bored and amused. “Alright then.” He waved his hand, and the lead general stepped forward, taking out a pair of guns and pointing them at the pair of them. 

Without a word, Allura balled her free hand into Matt’s shirt and dragged him off to the side. The blasts tore into the door behind them as they hid behind a console. “I thought you said you weren’t going to look out for me,”

“Oh shut up!” She shouted at him as two attackers flanked them, Zethrid and Ezor.

Matt gulped. “I call the smaller one,”

“Deal,” and they leapt into action to fight off their opponents.

Allura went for several sharp jabs with the end of her staff, trying to keep distance with Zethrid, so Zethrid couldn’t land any hand-to-hand blows. It was…minorly successful. At this distance she couldn’t do much damage to Zethrid, and Zethrid managed to get a few sharp punches in that she would feel for days. Still, Allura was strong, and she could handle this. 

Nearby, Matt’s strategy seemed to be ‘wave the pipe he held as fast and as randomly as possible so that Ezor couldn’t get close.’ It was surprisingly effective, although he didn’t manage to hit her as she dodged effortlessly out of the way. 

Finally, by a feat of pure luck, he landed a blow right on her chin. Acxa pointed her guns at him, but before she could fire, Ezor had already re-engaged…this time turning invisible.

Matt gave a battle cry, tossing his staff from one side to the other, trying to form a sort of shield around himself, but it wasn’t much use. Soon, Ezor kicked him and he went sprawling to the floor.

Allura was having much better luck. Having far more strength than Zethrid expected, once Zethrid grabbed hold of her arm, she was able to take control of the situation and toss the Galra woman instead. And just her luck, Allura was able to toss her straight into Acxa, right before the woman managed to fire on Matt. 

Both of them went tumbling on the ground, Zethrid considerably worse for wear, but as she was laying on Acxa (both of Acxa’s guns too far out of reach), they were both out of commission. 

Allura went to help Matt, but Matt was already standing back up, having picked up his pipe/staff again. “I see you’ve never fought kindergartners,” he said to the area around him. “POCKET SAND!” He pulled a handful of the sand in his pockets and tossed it in a swipe all around him. A decent portion of it landed on an invisible shape in front of him, and Ezor flinched, trying to get the sand out of her eye. 

Allura smirked, oddly proud of her companion for doing as well as he was, and turned to Lotor. 

Lotor sighed, and drew his sword. “Very well, then.”

The two of them exchanged blows quick and light. The difference was the blows he managed to land sliced her skin, the ones she landed only bruised. 

The both of them moved in a dance around the control room, leaping from one end to the other in lunges and parries, never daring to stay still for than a moment. 

“Mattie!” a little girls’ voice cried out, “Mattie help!”

Both Allura and Matt were distracted and turned to where Pidge had been lying helpless just a moment before. Now she was sitting up, but her eyes were blank…and Narti sat behind her, holding her up. “Mattie Mattie,” She said, with no expression.

“WA!” Matt fell to the ground as Ezor took advantage of his distraction to hit his pressure points, driving him to the ground.

Lotor similarly took advantage, standing behind Allura and putting his sword to her throat. “Have I earned your surrender, Princess?”

At that point, her communicator earrings began crackling, “…have a…away…window, copy?” Shiro’s voice came over.

“Looks like your little friends are trying to help you,” Lotor said, “Too bad it’s too late.”

Movement caught Allura’s eye, and she quickly figured out what Shiro had been trying to tell her. “I don’t think so,” She said. He followed her gaze, and she only had a split second for him to be distracted by the surprise to push his arm away and drop to the floor, covering her head.

Just as she dropped, a giant blue lion head smashed into the window, staring them all down. The air blew out along the edges of the window, knocking Lotor and his generals off their feet and sending anything that wasn’t screwed down flying. 

Allura noted for a moment Matt army crawling to the nearby Pidge, but had other matters. Adjusting quickly, she reached and grabbed Lotor’s sword in one hand, and one of Acxa’s guns that had gone flying in the other. The second gun escaped out into deep space. 

Just as the generals were starting to get their feet under them, the Red lion also smashed into the window, slightly further down. Allura, given a moments warning, managed to keep her feet under her by grabbing her control station. Matt had reached Pidge and curled around her, protective. 

She pointed the sword down at where Lotor lay. “I believe I’ve earned YOUR surrender.”

He smirked. “Maybe someday, Princess. But not today.” 

Before she knew it she was kicked forward, sent flying to the ground. She looked up in time to see Ezor re-materializing after having been turned invisible. She and the other generals, Lotor behind them, made their way to the door and ran out to their escape. 

Allura knew she couldn’t pursue them, and there was nothing they could do anyway, so she simply put in controls to put up a small particle barrier, just to cover the broken windows around the lion’s heads. The world went still once again.

The lion’s mouths opened up and Coran and the others all filed out, Shiro rushing over to Matt and Pidge to check on them. Coran went to his own control station. “Lotor and the others are headed to their ship,” he said, “They’re trying to escape.”

“Let them go,” She said. “They’ll be back. And we’ll be ready.”

Matt looked up at Shiro. “What was THAT?” He asked in reference to the giant lion heads.

“That,” Shiro said, “is what happens when you go along with a 7-year-old’s plan.” Hunk came out of the Blue lion, no longer terrified, but looking proud of himself, while Lance patted him on the back. 

Keith, meanwhile, ran out to sniff Pidge to see if she was better. At his presence, she slowly opened her eyes, and smiled. “Alright, kiddos,” Matt said, “Let’s get you home.”

 

Mr. Iverson was having an awful day. It was supposed to be a short day, and here he was, late at night, with a flashlight, searching through some damn woods for a runaway child, and his hand was bleeding.

Having already expected Matthew Holt to fail his home inspection, Iverson had planned out and gotten ready a new house for the young boy. All he had to do was drop him off, but apparently the universe had different plans for him. 

Very different plans for him. 

Just as he was thinking, ‘hmm, that moonlight is shining awfully bright tonight,’ he looked up and screamed, dropping his flashlight on the ground. 

A giant red cat was hovering before him, lowering down to the ground. He turned to run in the opposite direction, but was stopped by ANOTHER giant cat, this one blue and bigger than the first. 

He tripped over his own feet and lay in a panicked heap on the ground, praying he wouldn’t be eaten as both cats lowered their heads and opened their mouths.

Squinting in the bright lights coming from the lions, he saw…he saw PEOPLE in the mouths. He couldn’t make them out, they were so heavily backlit, but they were definitely people-shaped.

“Mr. Iverson,” A voice came from the Red Lion’s mouth. Was that…was that Matthew Holt? “We’d like to re-negotiate your recommendation to the state of Texas.”

 

Just a couple hours later, they had successfully terrorized a social worker and gotten Lance and Hunk home, spinning a story about a runaway hovercraft and lost kids they had found. They’d told Lance and Hunk to keep their adventures secret for now, but hoped that if they didn’t, the real story was too unbelievable for their parents. 

Shiro had welcomed Matt, Pidge, Keith, and Allura to his small apartment to discuss everything (Coran was staying on the ship for repairs and to guard). Pidge was drifting now in Matt’s hold. Keith looked exhausted as well, but refused Shiro’s attempts to pick him up.

“We’ll probably continue our search for the Yellow and Green lions,” Allura said, “But we’ll have to come back to check in on Lance, at least. He’s too young right now, but someday he will be the blue paladin.”

“He’s just a kid,” Shiro said, “What if he doesn’t want to?”

“Let’s deal with things one at a time, Shiro,” Matt said, “Obviously you’re welcome to come any time, just…let us know, and everything.”

“Of course,” She said, and then turned to Keith. “And we’ll bring you home too, little cub.”

Keith flinched and shook his head, turning into Shiro’s leg like Hunk had earlier. “No?” Shiro asked in his best caring voice. “Don’t you want to go back to your Mama?”

Keith was silent for another moment, but finally said softly, “Mama gone.”

The silence that fell then was uncomfortable as all the adults exchanged sad and awkward looks. 

Pidge wiggled down out of Matt’s arms. Matt didn’t even know she was awake, but she made her way over to Keith and wrapped him in her arms. “Keith can stay with us, can’t he, Mattie?” Pidge said, looking up and giving the best puppy dog eyes she could manage.

Matt wanted to say ‘yes’ right away, he really did, but his first thought went to his destroyed apartment and to his minimum wage grocer job. He didn’t have to worry about social workers anymore, but that didn’t magically get him more money. “He can stay with me,” Shiro piped up, unexpectedly. Matt blinked at him, unsure of what to say. “If that’s okay with you, Keith? I promise you’ll be able to see Pidge a lot.”

Keith shied away from the attention directed at him, but slowly nodded, holding onto Pidge. “Okay, but,” Matt said, “What do we do about the fact he looks like a purple cat? I mean, we can’t pretend he’s a cat FOREVER. I mean…isn’t he going to grow?”

“I…might be able to help with that.” Allura said. From her pockets, she pulled out a syringe similar to the one she had to try and knock Keith out with. Keith flinched and hid further behind Shiro’s legs. “It’s alright, it’s not to hurt you,” She said. She pulled it to her skin and stuck herself, pulling a slow, steady stream of blood from it. Matt’s eyebrows rose up to see it was bright pink instead of red. 

Once she had an amount she deemed appropriate, she flicked it to get out the air bubbles, and knelt before Keith. “Alteans are shapeshifters,” she told him, “This will help you appear human, for a short time. I promise.” 

With Pidge’s encouragement, Keith stepped out to face her, and she gently stuck him with the needle. He flinched, but she held him steady so she could finish the injection. 

Before their very eyes, Keith’s skin began to ripple, fur turning to black hair, skin turning from purple to pale, and eyes going from yellow to…purple-ish. Well, it was close enough. 

Of course, once he did appear human, the humans quickly diagnosed another problem. Pidge giggled looking at him. Shiro cleared his throat awkwardly and reached for a blanket to wrap around him. “Uh,” He said, “I guess first priority for tomorrow is shopping…”

That got Pidge to break out in peals of laughter, and even Matt couldn’t hold back a snort. Keith looked between them confused, not understanding yet that the etiquette for cats and humans were vastly different, and that his new appearance would require him wearing pants along with his torn, baggy black shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only an epilogue left! Woooo!!!


	11. Burning Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

“C’mon Keith! You can do it!”

“Go Lance, Go! Come on, Come on!!!!”

Hunk and Pidge stood on the rails of the arcade, having talked themselves out of being forced to race, so that Keith and Lance could have a proper ‘rematch’ on the hovercart track. This was their 27th rematch so far, but who’s counting?

(Pidge. Pidge was counting.)

“You’re going down, Keith Shirogane!” Lance yelled.

“I don’t think so,” Keith said, pulling ahead by a nose.

Keith kept pulling ahead until he made it across the finish line, just before Lance. On the side, Pidge clapped and cheered. “Pay up,” She instructed Hunk.

Hunk sighed and handed her his brand new pokémon game cartridge. “Please, just, don’t save over my game, and give it back on Monday,” he pleaded.

“Yeah yeah,” She said, as Keith and Lance came over to join them, Lance looking grumpier than ever.

“Keith! Pidge!” They turned to Shiro walking up to them. Keith brightened, he’d become attached to his new brother over the summer. “Come on, time to go home.”

Keith all but skipped over to Shiro, except that Keith most certainly did NOT skip. That was silly. Pidge managed a last wave over to Lance and Hunk first. “Bye, guys!”

“Hey!” Lance called after them, his irritation dissolving, “Remember, you promised to help me with the Math homework!”

“Talk to me online!” She called back.

Shiro put an arm around both kids shoulders and walked them back to their house. Since Matt and Pidge had lost theirs, Matt and Shiro decided to move in together and share resources, so Keith and Pidge ended up living together anyway. “So,” Shiro said, “How was your first week of school?”

“Boring,” Pidge complained, “The Mr. Kaltenecker won’t let me skip to later sections.”

“Aw, that’s a shame,” Shiro said, “But, you’ll get to them eventually, I promise. Keith? What do you think?”

Keith shrugged, “It’s…fun,” He said, “Friends are good. But homework…homework…” Keith’s English had improved tremendously over the couple of months, but he still struggled to find words. “…sucks.”

Pidge giggled into her hand at the word. “Keith!” Shiro said, “Pidge, did you teach him that?”

“What? No!” Pidge said. “Lance said it!”

Shiro gave a really deep sigh, “Remind me to have a talk with Mrs. McClain.”

Pidge giggled more, her energy non-containable as she did skip out of Shiro’s arm and practically bounced along the sidewalk beside him, “Hey, Shiro? Can we call Mattie tonight? I wanna talk to him about school, and Lance and Keith’s race, and Mr. Kaltenecker and everything!”

Another reason to move in with Shiro: Matt had accepted his old position back at the Garrison, and just recently been taken up to the space station for his final year at the program. Pidge had been sad for him to go, but having been to space herself, it felt a lot closer than it had before.

“I don’t know, Kiddo,” Shiro said, “It might be too busy, he’s got a LOT of work to do up there.”

Pidge slumped as they reached the door for the apartment, Shiro grabbing his keys to unlock the door. “But…can’t we just try?” She gave her best whimper. Shiro was actually even weaker to her puppy dog eyes than Matt, who had spent years building up resistance.

Shiro sighed again, “Alright, we can try the station if you want,” He said, opening the door, “but I really don’t think he’s going to answer.”

“Why not?” Pidge whined, but froze as she walked in the house.

“Hey, Pidge-Podge.” Matt said, standing in the middle of the living room. “How are—“

“MATTIE!” Pidge jumped up into his arms, knocking him over.

“Oof!” Matt said as he landed hard. “Geez, kid, you’re getting heavier.”

With great difficulty, Matt sat up, but did not let go of his little sister hanging around his neck. Behind her, Keith trotted up, offering Matt a hug as well, and Matt gladly pulled him in.

“How are you here???” Pidge demanded, happy.

“What, you didn’t want me to come?” He asked, sarcastically. She frowned, and buried her face in his shirt. “I just caught a ride when it came into town.”

“Hello, children!” Coran walked into the kitchen, holding a large bowl of some strange alien substance and wearing a floppy chefs hat. Allura walked in behind him, smiling broadly.

“Princess!” Pidge cheered, wanting to go up and hug the both of them….but not wanting to let go of Matt. Matt solved her dilemma by standing up himself and taking her over to them. Allura placed a kind kiss on her cheek, while Coran gave a friendly ruffle to her hair.

“Now, I’ve been reading some of your EARTH,” Coran always over-exaggerated the word since he had discovered the correct pronunciation, “cookbooks, and I think I’ve prepared something you should all find far more appetizing than last time.” He tilted the bowl of green goop to them, with yellow…something…all mixed into it.

The three humans instinctively backed away from it, faces screwed up, but the only one to break the silence was Keith. “Blech,” he said, holding his nose.

“Tell you what, Coran,” Shiro said, coming up and instinctively wrapping an arm around Matt’s waist, “You treated us last time you were here, why don’t you let us treat you this time. Have you ever had Pizza?”

Coran blinked, “Why, no, I don’t believe I ever have! What is it?”

“Let me order some, and we’ll show you,” Shiro said, whipping out his phone.

Pidge and Keith bounced in excitement, Pidge starting a chant of “Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!” Which Keith quickly joined in.

Shiro pulled Matt in for a quick kiss before dialing. “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back,” Matt said. Shiro smiled and then paced away to discuss toppings.

“Oh! Matt, Matt!” Pidge said, “Hunk leant me their Pokémon game since Keith beat Lance in a hovercart race again!”

“Oh wow!” Matt said, putting Pidge down on the ground, but not letting his arm leave her shoulders, “Good job, Keith! C’mon, why don’t you bring it over to the couch and you can show me?”

Soon enough, Pidge was in the middle of the couch, Matt on one side, Keith on the other, and Coran and Allura hovering behind them. After he was done ordering, Shiro came and sat behind Keith, who may not have his ears literally perked in his current form, but his face still had a cat-like quality as he followed Pidge’s avatar on the little handheld screen.

Pidge smiled to herself, feeling safe surrounded by friends and family. She had been devastated when she had lost her parents, but looking at it now, she had gained two more brothers, two best friends at school, two strange alien relatives that came to visit every once in a while, and of course, she had never lost the brother who held her dearest.

And she had never felt more loved.

~The End~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art commissioned from [foxyjoy-art!](foxyjoy-art.tumblr.com) Reblog said art from [here!](http://foxyjoy-art.tumblr.com/post/168625361259/i-forgot-to-post-this-commission-i-finished-a)
> 
> Okay some notes that I couldn't find a way to fit into the story: 
> 
> 1) During the Kerberos mission, the Galra DID show up and try to capture the people, but Colleen managed to eject Shiro into an escape pod and send him back to Earth as he was the youngest and least experienced. The trauma of seeing aliens and his friends getting killed blocked the memories out of Shiro's mind, so he's not 100% sure what happened. 
> 
> His distress from the incident, however, was actually projected across the universe (or the weird astral plane thing at least) and ended up waking the Black Lion.
> 
> The Black Lion, however, imprisoned in the castle, couldn't come to save him, so he instead managed to wake up Allura and Coran. 
> 
> 2) Lotor doesn't fit into canon Lotor at all, he's mostly just generic villain here, working for his father to collect the lions.
> 
> 3) Keith isn't understood by the others, because the other aliens all have a babelfish in their brain which allows them to understand and be understood. Keith is too young to have a babelfish yet, so he gets to learn English the hard way. 
> 
> Yes babelfish is stolen from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think! my tumblr is dork-empress, my twitter is nebulawriter


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